What do you mean, the dead are walking?
by xXScissorMafiaXx
Summary: Okay, so this is NOT a story about the main characters(: If that's what you're looking for, this isn't it. It's about MY FRIENDS and I being stuck in the same ordeal, with same references and such! Only reason I put it up was so I had a link to send my friends for this so that they couldn't complain about not having it on a flash drive! ;p
1. Character Intro & Preface

I watched the show "The Walking Dead" and a let's play of the video game and wondered, "What would happen if the gang and I were shot into the middle of the zombie apocalypse? And

WHA-BAM! Story idea! So enjoy my ramblings(:

Characters:

Abbey- 5'6'' slim build, fair skin, curly brunette hair and blue eyes.

Annie- 5'9'', slender build, fair skin, gray eyes and brown hair.

Emma- 5'5'', muscular build, fair skin, brown eyes and dark brown hair.

Hailey- 5'7", muscular build, fair skin, dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. Kristen's twin.

Kara- 5'6'', slim build, tan skin, thick blonde hair and brown eyes.

Kristen- 5'7'', muscular build, fair skin, dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. Hailey's twin.

Margaret- 5'1", muscular build, tan skin, brown hair and eyes.

Sydney- 5'5'' slim build, fair skin, curly dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.

**Preface**

"Guys, can you hear me?" A smaller brunette whispered into the radio. She paused for a second, then switched the knob and waited for the return voices.

"Loud and clear. Copy that, Margaret," a lively, almost angelic voice replied from the speaker. "Sydney and Abbey won't shut up!" Laughter rang through the speaker, showing that Sydney and Abbey were having a blast.

"Tell them to shut up then," Margaret grunted. "We're on a rescue mission, not some kind of girl's night out! Be nice though." Margaret shook her head as she added the last bit onto the end of her sentence. Being nice was too challenging for her if it was on a daily basis. Margaret had her nice points, and was generally a good person, but she loved to be flippant and rebellious. And taunt other people.

"Roger that. Will do." The other girl covered the mouthpiece momentarily, and Margaret heard a muffled, "SHUT UP OR I'LL SET MARGARET ON YOU," and then she came back on, breathing, "I took care of it. What's your location?"

"I, uh... the roof of the black building. I'm behind the generators. How about you? Are you guys still in the mobile home park?"

"Aee-yap. We're gonna make our way towards you. I've got my cross-bow ready and loaded to take down anything in our way, and the two idiots behind me are busily trying to get their guns loaded now that they've heard the plan."

Margaret grimaced and replied, "Annie, if you do that, careful. There's walkers all over the front street. You can come up the back street and climb the ladder. There's only one walker back here, and you can take him easily."

"Okay Mommy," Annie's pretty voice turned sour. "I can take care of myself. And there's three of us. Quit with the guardian angel thing. I'm strong."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down! I'm just saying!" Margaret shot back. "And come on then, get your butt over here. I'll be waiting."


	2. Chapter 1 A Promise

**Chapter 1**

"A Promise"

_Margaret_

"Wow..."

I was breathless. Speechless. Wordless.

I sat on top of a metal warehouse, watching as a bunch of walking dead people tore apart a dog I had just seen a couple of hours ago, running free, skinny and un-groomed but otherwise free of disease and troubles. _I guess the dead got the poor little guy after all, _I thought to myself, and shook my head in disgust as a string of intestine was drug out. The walkers were all scrambling to grab a piece of the meat, tripping over each other and growling aggressively.

CHINK! CHINK! CHINK!

The sound catapulted me out of my thoughts. I scrambled back from the edge of the building, turning towards the ladder and knocking an arrow. I aimed the crossbow at the top of the ladder, ready to shoot if the dead had learned to climb. But to my relief, it was Annie, Abbey, and Sydney, scrambling up the ladder. I heard shrieks from below, and walked to the ladder to peek at the ground. About 12 walkers were gathered at the bottom, all howling and shrieking at us and grabbing the bars and the wall in an attempt to get to us.

"We almost got into trouble," Annie huffed, setting her backpack on the ground. Sydney and Abbey looked equally tired, staring at me and panting. The screams of frustration died down a little, and Sydney shook her head. "This gathering for supplies idea was a bad one. We're trapped."

"Ah, contráre, young one. There's a ladder on the other side that we can take. Go's straight to the alley where our car's parked. You can even see the suburban. No walkers in sight." I smiled and jerked my thumb over my back. Sydney quickly scampered over and looked, then sighed in relief. "Let's go!"

I opened my mouth to protest, but Sydney was already flying down the ladder. I shrugged at Annie and Abbey, and growled in frustration, then pulled a set of sparklers out of my backpack and grazed them on the ground, causing the fuze to be lit. I heaved it over the opposite edge, then followed Annie down the ladder. We hit the ground running, and made it to the van in one piece. I heaved my backpack in the backseat and then jumped in the driver's side, cranking the engine as everyone clamored in. I waited until Annie had gotten seated in the passenger seat, and shut the door, and then I floored it, just as a horde of the vile creatures came around the corner.

The fastest one grabbed the bumper, and I spun the wheel, fishing tailing across the alley way and slamming the walker into a wall. It let go with a groan, then struggled back up and tried to grab the door. I slammed my foot on the gas, and with a scream from Abbey and Sydney shot out of the alleyway, through a crowd of walkers, and onto the highway.

"That went well," Annie commented dryly, looking at the brown-black blood running down the windshield.

"Get over it. We're alive, aren't we?" I shot back, steering the wheel and avoiding a walker that staggered onto the road, an arm and half it's shoulder completely missing. Blood ran from the obviously fresh wound, and within moments the walker had left a river of sticky blood across the road. I splashed some up on the windshield, right in front of Annie. She sneered in disgust and looked at me again.

"Why do we keep doing this?" she asked, the familiar wary expression making its way across her face.

"Don't look at me like that," I glanced in her direction. "Please... we're in this together. We're fighting. We are what's left of humanity. We're the last stand. We can't just give up. I'm living for you guys; I would hope you'd do the same."

"Ya Annie!" Abbey kicked the back of her seat. "If you kill yourself, I'll wait until you come back and then kill you again!"

"Uh, thanks?" Annie looked out of the window, her eyes fogging over with moisture. I felt the familiar tightening of my throat as well, and pushed it back before anything could happen. Annie was my best friend. Even before the apocalypse, we were inseparable. I even dumped a boyfriend because he made fun of her. When the walkers started to take over, I got after her about working out, and much to her surprise, she started packing on pounds of muscle, her legs becoming defined and her arms beefing up. I protected her until she was strong enough to throw a walker off of herself, and then gave her a rifle and quit watching her so closely.

I also felt the same emotions she did. If she was crying, I would start tearing up. If she was happy, I would feel a rush of energy, even though I didn't know what I was so happy about. If she was scared, I would sit on the ground and not move, to terrified to keep going. I tried to be strong when she needed me to be, and if she was just too sad to do anything, I would just hold her until she got her breath back and calmed down.

Nowadays, all she ever did was think about her old life and depress herself. She wanted me to end her life, to kill her before the walkers did, but I refused, and kept telling her that life is worth living, and just to hang on. We were trying to head to the coast, to gather supplies on the way and then get on a boat and go to an island in the ocean with few walkers that could easily be eliminated and many plants that could be eaten.

"Whoaa!" I slammed on the brakes and slid to a stop. There was a whole gang of walkers in the road. I looked at Annie and asked, "Should we risk it?"

"YES! Mow them down!" Annie unbuckled and ducked down under the dash.

Sydney and Abbey looked at each other, then at me, and asked, "You're not serious, are you?"

I glanced at Annie, who was nodding furiously, and replied slowly. "I uh... think that we should go around. We'd be leading them right back to camp... and the others probably don't want to deal with them. Besides, Emma's recovering from the cut on her arm due to the knife accident. We don't want to play defender, and multiple gunshots will bring them straight to us."

"What?" Annie straightened up and glared at me. "You don't want to just plow through them? We'd kill most of them."

"What if one gets stuck under the suburban?" I answered her with a question.

I saw uncertainty flash across her face, and she muttered, "Fine," before getting back in her seat and buckling up.

By now, the gaggle of walkers had reached us, and one of them was growling and banging on my suburban window. I just shook my head and threw it in reverse, knocking him down and out of the way. The ones that were crawling on the hood were slung off, and I spun around and popped it back into first gear, and then took off down the highway. The walkers were quickly out of sight, and then we were on a back road, tearing back to the fort we had created.

I pulled up to the huge chain link fence and waited for someone to open it. Hailey came from around the corner of the concrete wall that we used as a back-up walker stopper and opened the gate. She turned the electric fence off, unhooked the wire, and swung the gate open. We had a generator that ran on solar power, and it ran the electric fence that was rigged around the entire place. The chain link fence also had barbed wire rigged just in front of it. We had worked hard to fortify this place just after the first outbreak of what appeared to be cannibals. We payed companies with our collage tuitions and had them come out and build everything. We rigged the barbed wire ourselves after we realized the cannibals were walking dead people, as an extra precaution, but other than that the house and small farm area were our home.

Hailey waited until we came through the gate, then shut it and hopped on the side of the truck. I rolled the window down and she asked, "So what happened in town? Did your supply hunting go well?"

"Not really," I shook my head. "The walkers found us and separated us for a while, and when we got back together and in the suburban, we were stopped by a group of them in the road and had to detour." I stopped in front of our two story farmhouse. "This world has officially gone to Hell."

"Hey... watch your mouth," Annie smirked at me as Hailey jumped off of the side of the truck.

"What? Hell isn't a bad word; it's a place. And we're in it." I opened the door and hopped out of my suburban, then shut the door and trotted onto the house's porch. I opened the front door and walked into the living room, where the rest of my adopted family was sitting around, reading books or talking with each other.

The second I set foot through the doors, a blonde streak came sailing at me from down the stairs. Kara launched herself off of the bottom step and hit me in mid air, wrapping her long limbs around me and clinging like a monkey.

"You're back!" She squeaked, nuzzling her face into my shoulder. I stood for a second longer, and then collapsed on the ground from the shock of having a 120 pound girl jump on me.

"Hello Kara! Glad to see you too," I gasped out, struggling to get up. As soon as I was on my feet Emma and Kristen bombarded me with questions.

"Are you okay?"

"Did you get bitten?"

"Was there a lot of walkers?"

"How was the scavenging?"

"Was there food?"

"How about clothes? Did you find clothes?"

"What about-"

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, you two!" I laughed. "We're all safe and uninfected. The city is full of walkers! You couldn't move two feet without running into one! We traveled on the rooftops for the most part."

"We couldn't get back to each other for a while either," Sydney growled, coming through the front door and throwing her crossbow down on the ground beside the front lamp shade. "The freaking walkers trapped us apart for a good half hour. Margaret stuck it out on her own for a while on top of a building, and we stayed put in an old convenience store until there was a gap in the crowd. We made a break for the mobile home park, stayed there for a bit, then met up with Margaret and ran to the van."

She slammed her bags down on the foyer table with a huff. "This world is a nightmare."

"What was your first clue?" Emma jumped up gracefully of off the couch and came towards us. She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug, and pulled away a few moments later, my satchel hanging from her hands with a smirk.

"Hey! Don't steal that!" I growled playfully, trying to grab it back from her. She danced out of my reach and opened it, pulling out a pack of crackers.

"Thanks for the food!" She laughed, tossing the satchel back to me. "I was getting really hungry!"

"Your welcome," I smiled back. I always found something for her when I was out scavenging; she was the only one who didn't leave the house at all. She would hold down the fort, take care of laundry and keep the place clean. She even used to watch the livestock we had before they all died, but after that, she just tended to the house. We all appreciated the effort she put forward, but I was the one that actually rewarded it, always bringing back something special for her. I took care of her in a way, since I was the motherly one in the group and she usually presented herself as a rambunctious or needy child despite her great responsibilities.

Annie of course was the closest one to me in this hated world, but after her came Emma, and I confided in them both for problems. I couldn't live without Annie, but if Emma died I'd probably fall into incurable depression and end up dead anyways from depression.

Emma plopped herself down on the couch and looked at me. "How much stuff did you find?" she asked, looking at me with hope swirling into her eyes. I sighed and looked down, my hold body going rigid with pain; the only things I had found were some medicine and a bunch of old cereal and canned foods.

The rest of the group looked up. "Ya, what did you get?" I told them what I had found, and then hung my head in sorrow.

"I'm sorry; it's not much, and I'll have to go out later," I mumbled, scuffing the ground. "I'll leave tomorrow and try to find more on my own."

"Um, no you WON'T," Kara looked at me and shook her head assertively. She was the natural leader of the group, with Annie coming behind her. I was the comic, tough-guy, AND the mother of the group, Sydney and Abbey were the inseparable twins that weren't real sisters, Hailey and Kristen were the real twins that HATED each other most of the time, and Emma was the go-to for advice/housemaid. We all shared responsibilities, but Emma always picked up the slack.

"Why? Traveling in a group always slows me down," I argued. "If I go alone I can be in and out before anything sees me."

"And if you get trapped your guts will be ripped out!" Kristen jumped up off of the sofa. "You are NOT going alone! I'm going with you if I have too!" She started to step towards me and then fell, clutching her hurt leg.

She had sliced it open on some sheet metal a couple of missions back, and with my talent at breaking into buildings, we broke into a local hospital and stitched her leg up scrappily, using painkillers and my perfect eyesight to line the veins up while Kristen was knocked out.

We all had almost lost our lives that day, thanks to the morgue releasing a wave of the undead on us in the middle of the operation. Annie, Sydney, and Kara had fought hard, almost getting bitten several times before finally killing most of them and forcing the door shut. The blood attracted more and more, and just as we finished the stitches and leaped out of the window and onto the roof, the door gave way and the horde of walkers poured into the room, some attacking the bed covered with Kristen's blood, some rushing to the window and staring at us in frustration.

"Don't walk on it! You'll only take longer to heal!" Abbey gave Kristen an exasperated look and then turned to me. "Can you take her upstairs?"

"I can TRY!" I joked, then walked to Kristen, and with some difficulty, swung her into my arms.

"Now KISS!" Annie joked, looking at the way I was holding her.

"Shut UP!" I yelled back, then started up our steep staircase. Kristen, Hailey, and I had zombie-proofed it after we had a walker break in and get upstairs, where we were sleeping the first night we holed up here, in the beginning.

Kristen wasn't much of a help, complaining and growling, "Put me DOWN!" and kicking her good leg.

"STOP IT unless you want me to DROP you!" I snarled at her, and attempted to toss her up a little as a warning. It worked, and she shut up.

I reached the top of the stairs and dropped her off in the very first room. "How come I have to stay in here?" She whined at me. "I could be driving the truck while you guys run around and gather stuff."

"Because if a gang of walkers see you in the suburban and decide it's worth it to break through the glass, you're dead." I laid her down on the bed we had in what we had labeled, thanks to Kristen, the 'infirmary' and picked up the sheets, laying them over Kristen. "Not shut up and try to rest. Let your leg heal."

"But I feel useless!" Kristen whined, though she rolled over on her side and snuggled into the sheets, glaring across the room at the wall. We had painted the room a vibrant blue, and it really brought out Kristen's eyes, light from the sun dancing through them.

"Trust me, you are!" I laughed, walking towards the door. "I'll check back on you in a couple of hours." I shut the door and charged down the stairs again.

I leaped into the living room, where everyone was sitting around, squeezing out information about the supply-gathering mission. We usually do one about every three weeks, but this time we went to the more infested side of town. The supplies over there were harder to get to, but there was more to be grabbed, and the stocks on the other side were running really low. Unfortunately, the zombies prevented us from getting too close to the big super markets and such, so we were screwed until they thinned out.

"But, how did Margaret get away from you guys for so long? What made her leave?" Emma was asking Annie as I came into the room.

"I work alone; always have, always will," I laid down beside Emma on the couch and stretched out, my feet hanging over the end of the armrest and my head resting in Emma's lap.

"Gee, this isn't gonna help your gay reputation at all," she commented almost immediately, looking down at me with eyes sparkling in humor.

"Shut up," I growled for what must have been the fifth time today. "I'm not gay. And if you haven't noticed, we're in a zombie apocalypse. The people that blamed me for that, including my parents, are all dead." I said the last part with a little twinge. My parents and I had never really... 'gotten on' well. I had been in a bad family. And when I was escaping to Annie's house the first time the zombies attacked mine, they were torn apart while I escaped on horseback. The guilt had never really left, but I had learned to deal with it.

"That's lovely," Emma snorted, petting my hair softly. I closed my eyes and sighed at her gentle touch. She always knew what to do to calm me down, and right now, smoothing my ruffled hair was really putting me at ease and almost to sleep.

I listened to the others talk for a few minutes. "So when are we gonna go back in?" Kara asked the group. "Would five days from now work?"

"How about three? Five would be pushing it," Sydney chided in her quiet, soft voice. She had calmed down since we had arrived home, her tough side vanishing back into her sweet nature.

"How?" Abbey asked, curious. She almost always said something after Sydney did, wether it was to ask Sydney her intentions or to back them up.

"The dead will have time to wander out of the territory and back. Three days from now, they'll probably be gone from the buildings we tried today," Sydney explained, patiently talking to her best friend. "But wait five, and they'll be back."

"You know what? ... you think smart." Hailey was waving her finger dumbly at Sydney.

"Ya don't say?" Kara looked at her and grinned her trade-mark grin.

"Oh Kara, you wanna go?"

"Ya Hailey, **bring it!**"

"Okay, let's go!"

"Stop it, you two!" Abbey grabbed Kara's wrist as she stood up to go outside. "No one goes out without someone watching them, you know that."

"Ya, Hailey would be watching me!" Kara tried to make an excuse.

"No she wouldn't! She'd be fighting you!" Sydney exclaimed. "You are NOT going outside alone together to _fight_, none the less!"

"Chill out Syds!" Annie laughed. "If they want to draw zombies and get themselves killed, let them. It's no skin off our backs."

"Annie, that's mean. We should care about our dear friends more," I snickered at her. "After all, while they're being eaten, we can get away!"

"HEEY!" Kara leapt at me and lifted me off of the couch, throwing me up against the wall. "You wanna die? Because I can find some walkers to throw you to!"

"Let go of me, you stupid ho!" I pushed her arm off of my throat. "Why would I really do that? I care too much about you and Hailey! And everyone."

Emma jumped up and ran across the room just to slap me. "Don't say those dirty words!" she growled, though humor twinkled in her eyes.

"Well, tell her to cut the death threats! They are not appreciated!" I retaliated at Kara's moves, tripping her in one swift move and taking her down to the floor, holding her down with a hand on each shoulder. "Don't. Touch. Me."

"Fine, fine!" Kara went limp in submission.

Uh, guys..." Annie came over and tried to pull me off of her. As Annie pulled one of my arms loose, Kara took advantage of me and pulled me down beside her, flipping over and sitting on me. "Who's weak now?"

Annie backed up. "Never mind. You're obviously too busy killing each other."

Kara and I wrestled together for a minute or two, and then finally sprang apart, exhausted and hurting in multiple places.

"I'll finish you later," I huffed, heaving my compact, muscular body off of the floor and onto the couch.

"Touché," Kara responded, and with Emma's help, climbed to her feet and looked at the rest of the group. "I'm going upstairs. Anyone else coming?" Emma, Sydney, Abbey, and Hailey all volunteered themselves, and the posse, minus Annie and I, charged up to the second floor of the farm house.

Annie joined me on the couch, sitting beside where my head was laying and looking down at me, smiling weakly. "Do you think we did the right thing?"

"What are you talking about?" I sat up and turned towards her, looking at her furrowed brow in confusion. "We've done everything right, haven't we? I mean, we're still alive, and even fit and well fed."

"I..." Annie trailed off and looked away briefly, staring into the shadows. "I mean staying alive. Should we have... killed ourselves like we originally planned? Instead of fighting this carnage of walking dead people that outnumbered us hundreds of millions to one?

"I, uh, um... when we were in town today, and the zombies separated us, and you were on your own, I was so _**scared**_ for you. I thought I was going to lose you." Annie blinked, her eyes starting to mist over. "You're the only thing I have left besides myself in this Hellish place. The rest of the group, they're _your_ friends. I didn't really know any of them until this horrible disease started spreading. My friends were picked off right at the beginning."

I could see the pain that had been built up in her for so long start to come out. I moved closer, and looked her in the eyes, saying gently, "Of course we did the right thing. We'll just eventually kill all of these things, between us and the remaining survivors, and then the world'll be ours again. You just have to hold onto the thought of your old life, and the prospect of the new one, and fight for it."

Annie looked away, tears now flowing freely down her face. "We will _never_ have our old lives back! The walkers robbed us of that. Th-They... they killed our families! How can we remake that?" She sobbed freely now, hiding her face in her hands.

I pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back with my hands, comforting her the same way she comforts me. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tight enough that it hurt, her tears staining my shoulder and running down my shirt front.

"We can try. We have each other. There's other survivors out there. We would have no problem taking on a new life and starting over new, meeting remaining guys, falling in love... starting our own families eventually. You know, fun stuff like that?" I felt her chuckle into my shoulder, my obvious hints at something inappropriate lightening her mood a bit.

I continued to rub her back. "Yes, we did the right thing by staying alive. Killing ourselves would just be weak."

I pulled away from her slowly and took her hands in mine. "Now, promise me one thing." I stared into the girl who had become my sister's eyes, making sure I had her full attention.

"You have to promise me one thing."

"What is it?"

"You can't let me down on this. It's going to be tough at times, when the weight of this wretched world is on your shoulder, but you have to keep going."

"I understand. What is it?"

"You have to stay strong. For me. Don't think about the past; think of the future. What we're working towards. What we're living for. Can you promise that?"

She looked back into my eyes, a distant spark of rebirth starting in her eyes.

"I promise."


	3. Chapter 2 Outside The Fence

**Chapter 2**

"Outside The Fence"

_Annie_

"Come on!" Margaret was at the top of the stairs, staring impatiently down at me. "I wanna go to sleep!"

"Then go without me," I mumbled back, starting to trudge up the stairs. I loved Margaret to death; she was like a sister to me, but she could be _really_ annoying and pushy. And when she had mood flashes... it was like dealing with a bipolar tiger.

Nonetheless, she waited until I reached the top of the stairs and then took off in the direction of our shared bedroom. There were 3 bedrooms, and we shared ours with Hailey. When I entered, I found Margaret in the midst of poking Hailey with a pole, a metal _pole_, while she slept.

"Margaret, don't do it!" I hissed through clenched teeth, watching as she softly poked Hailey's shoulder. Hailey just rubbed her arm in her sleep and rolled over.

Margaret turned and grinned at me, then began mocking a walker and fell on Hailey, growling and grabbing her. Hailey woke up with a scream, punching Margaret in the chest and knocking her back. "WALKER! WALKER IN THE HOUSE!"

Then she realized it was Margaret and punched her again, aiming for her face and clubbing her shoulder. "You stupid- gahh!" She bit back a curse.

In about three seconds everyone had run into our room, weapons ready and faces in half panic. When they realized what was wrong, Kara growled and clubbed Margaret over the head and dropped her readied machete in disgust.

"Really? It's 8 o'clock a night! It'll be dark soon and I don't want to be kept awake by the walkers frying on the fence!"

_Margaret_

"Sorry guys!" I ducked my head. "Practical joke. Go get some sleep!"

"Dummy," Sydney muttered the closest to a cuss-word and walked out, followed by her room mates.

I waited until the room cleared out, then looked at Annie. "You want the bed tonight? I'll stay up and watch the fence for a while for any short circuits, and then sleep on the floor."

"You sure? I feel bad... you always sleep on the floor," Annie protested. "Let me check for short circuits."

"Nah. I don't need sleep. I'm not growing anymore," I grinned. "You, on the other hand, are trying to muscle up even more than you already are, and you need rest so your muscles can mend and get bigger!"

"Okay," she gave in, giving me a frown. Then she looked away and her face glowed bright red with embarrassment.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at her eyes as they stared at something unseen.

"Nothing, it's just.." she looked down. "We can, um.. share the bed... if you want."

"Chill out. Thanks for the offer. I might," I looked down, "if I feel like it in a couple hours. Make sure you sleep with your back turned towards me so I can do the same."

I walked to the window and stared out, watching as the first walkers stumbled out and towards the house, hitting the fence and frying instantly. I sighed. I was never going to sleep now, with the sound of moans and groans and the zap of the electrical fence filling my ears.

I watched as slowly the amount of walkers grew larger, gravitating towards the big house and buzzing fence that belonged to us. Every one of them that hit the fence went up in smoke, and if they got through that, they had a barbed wire fence and a concrete wall to go through. I smiled inwardly; we were always safe here. It was our one retreat.

I saw a giant spark on down the fence line; a walker had gotten tangled in the wire and was flailing around, it's skin burning through. Within seconds the hot wire had managed to slice through the creature's skin, and it fell to the ground in pieces. Yep. Definitely safe.

I turned and walked out of the room, turning the light out on the way. I crossed the hall and opened the door to Sydney, Abbey, and Kristen's room, where everyone was already asleep. I stepped over Abbey, who was sprawled on a blanket on the floor, and looked out their window at the back of the property, where walkers were thinner. No noticeable problems popped out at me for a few minutes, so I left and went to Kara and Emma's room. I could see the rest of the property from here, and no problems were there either.

I shrugged, and went back to my room, slowly opening and closing the door so that the hinges didn't creak, and looking in uncertainty at the open side of the bed that Annie had left for me. I considered it for a second, and then Annie rolled over and wrapped her arms around the second pillow and shivered, her face tight. Goosebumps were appearing on her arm, and she was starting to shake. I shook my head and grabbed a second blanket from under Hailey's bed and laid it over her in an effort to keep her warm.

Her face eased up almost instantly and she sighed, rubbing her face into the pillow and starting to smile. Between the fact that she was in my spot and the look of contentment on her face, I didn't wanna move her, so I pulled my usual blanket out from under the bed and laid it down on the floor, then curled up on it like a dog and rested my head on my arm, slowly slipping into a light, uneasy sleep.

I woke up to something kicking me in the back. I rolled over, groaning in pain, and looked up in time to see Annie's foot slam into my stomach, making me bark in pain.

"What was that for?" I jumped up and growled at her in anger.

"I TOLD you you could share the bed! Why did you sleep on the ground WITHOUT even a pillow or blanket?" Annie clubbed me again. "Are you TRYING to make me feel bad?"

"Are you two going to fight?" Hailey groaned and got up from her bed. "Cuz if you are then I'm going to go crash in Kara's room." She started to get up, only to stop when Annie snorted.

"Why? It's already 9:30. Time to get up and go scavenge."

"What? Really? Aww man," Hailey groaned. "Fine, I'll go and start waking the others up." She left the room swiftly and closed the door behind her.

I looked at Annie and told her, "So ARE you going to try and fight me?"

"Pfft no. I don't wanna go out of the window. But why _did _you sleep on the floor?"

"You were cuddling the second pillow and shivering, so I used the second spare blanket to keep you warm, and I let you keep that death grip on the pillow." I nodded to the spare pillow that still had dents in it from her arm. "And it looks like it was a good decision too."

"Margaret..." Annie looked down and shook her head at me. "Thanks."

"Hey, no problem. I didn't need them." I shrugged and started walking towards the door. "Come on, it's time to wake everyone up!"

I slipped out of our room and looked into Sydney and Abbey's, seeing Hailey in there talking to Kristen, and then charged at Kara's door, slamming it open and jumping on her, tickling her sides to wake her up.

"WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!" I tickled her, making her twist and squirm under me, waking with a start and heaving me off and onto the end of the bed. Kara growled and flipped her hair out of her face, glaring at me. I grinned and winked at her, then jumped on the still-sleeping Emma.

I tickled her in the same fashion, straddling her and mercilessly drumming her sides with my fingers. She screamed, even in her sleep, and started struggling, flailing her arms blindly as she woke up and started fighting me. Once she got her bearings she flipped us over and pinned me with an amazing display of strength, and threatened me.

"You wanna get hogtied and tickled until you wet your pants?" She raked her nails down my side, earning a growl/screech, and an attempted bite at her wrist, which was holding mine down.

Annie walked in just then, looking at us and saying, "That looks very, ah, sexual," and then sitting by Kara on the bed. Emma was off of me in a heart-beat, jumping up and leaving the room, tossing carelessly over her shoulder something about not being gay and thinking that even half the walkers were still sexy and in shape.

"I'm gonna go bite Hailey's tongue again," I purred in my gayest voice, talking about back when we had been freshmen in high school and we both had managed to hurt ourselves the same way while lifting weights. She had bit through her tongue, like me, but in addition I gashed my chin open and got it closed with butterfly stitches.

The whole joke behind the 'bite Hailey's tongue' thing was that she had been explaining to someone how she had bitten through it, and another kid had come up in the MIDDLE of the story and asked, "What happened to your tongue?"

I had looked at the person and said honestly, in the most creepy voice I could muster, "I bit it," and winked. And the stupid person **took me seriously. **She looked shocked and asked, "So, wait... did she bite yours?" "Yep!" I grinned devilishly and turned to pin Hailey against the wall with my hands on either side of her head. "Isn't that right babe?"

She pushed me and told me to get off.

But now, I tease her about it still, even though it was over 3 years ago, and we were going from small teenagers in what would be high school to adults, our bodies setting in stone what we'd look like.

Hailey hated it too. All the gay harassment was funny to everyone except her, and she ran from me when I started it up most times.

I waltzed into Kristen's room, spotting Hailey at once standing by Kristen, who was sitting on a bed and talking. Kristen saw me and moved, just in time for me to tackle Hailey onto the bed.

"GET OFF!" Hailey shoved me off with one hand and regained her balance.

"Can I bite your tongue babe?" I asked in my lowest voice, grinning and winking at her.

"Go away." Hailey pushed me to the door. "Harass Annie."

"But she bites back!" I whined, then smiled and turned, going back to Kara's room.

Kara looked up as I entered the room, shaking her head. "If you're back to torture us with more tickling, Emma and I are both ready to fight." Emma shook her fist at me and growled teasingly, "Bring it girl!"

Annie rolled her eyes. "Margaret, is that all you do, fight?"

"Well, DUH! I don't have a life, and now that the apocalypse hit, I never will, so I'll do whatever I want and not worry."

"Go kill yourself." Annie laid down in Kara's bed and pulled the covers over herself, snuggling back into the sheets.

"Oh no. Come on girly. Get up or I'll sic Margaret on you." Kara smacked Annie's butt and made her roll over, tucking her butt under her and groaning, "No, Margaret..."

I spluttered. "That wasn't ME! That was KARA!"

"Sure it wasn't." Kara got up and walked to the door. "Come on, you bunch of walker bait, let's go down to the kitchen and see what we can make." I stood and helped Annie unwrap herself from Kara's blanket, then followed Emma and Kara out of the room and towards the kitchen.

I grabbed a machete off of the weapon pile and pushed myself to the front of the group, saying, "Let me go first." I always did, to make sure there weren't walkers that busted their way in overnight. I climbed down the ladder and landed softly, checking the living room and the view that I had of the kitchen and calling, "Clear!"

Kara, Annie, and Emma followed me, and we all went into the kitchen to find some food. I grabbed a pack of crackers for myself, and Annie and Emma went with an apple, while Kara grabbed a can of chili and cracked it open, then got two spoons. "I'm going to share with Kristen." She set it on the counter and climbed back up the stairs, coming back down a few moments later carrying Kristen like a baby. She let her on the couch, then fetched the chili and started sharing it with her.

The sight of everyone helping each other warmed my heart, but seeing everyone's ribs stick out tortured me. I wanted every day to find food so that we could start packing on the pounds, but we never did. We always got lost somehow or cornered, and ended up fighting and burning energy instead of getting food and conserving it.

Hailey, Sydney and Abbey chose small things for themselves as well, and once everyone had eaten I clapped my hands together and said, "Okay, who's up for driving into the little store downtown? We've never tried there."

Abbey and Sydney both responded, "Me," almost instantly, while Kara and Annie looked at each other and then nodded to me. Annie, Kara, and I fought amazing side by side, and almost never got cornered when together.

"Great! The rest stay here and help scaredy-cat Emma clean," I started for the door, grabbing my crossbow, hatchet, pistol, backpack, and keys, then stopped and turned. "Oh, and Kristen?" I looked at her.

"Ya?"

"Stay off the leg."

_Emma_

I watched Margaret and her posse charge out of the door, heading for Margaret's suburban, then looked at Hailey and shrugged. "What do you think they'll find?"

"Uh, a bunch of walkers." Kristen groaned and stretched out on the couch, grabbing a book and her portable cd-player, plugging the headphones in. The little thing usually lasted about a week on a battery, and they had found literally _hundreds_ in a store once, so Kristen always had music to listen to, even if it was the same three or four cds.

"Well no duh," Hailey shook her head at her sister, who was tuning the rest of us out, her game leg propped up on the headrest.

I rolled my eyes at the twins, who always ignored me for the most part, and started cleaning the kitchen, going out back to the well and retrieving a bucket from the bottom, full of water. I grabbed the old rag off of the hanger in the back hall by the wash area, and then dipped it in the bucket, starting to wipe down the cabinets and counter.

"Why don't you go clean off the fence of walkers?" I looked at Hailey. She looked at me and nodded, getting up and grabbing the shovel off the wall and leaving the house. I watched her walk out to the gate and open it, and with a twinge realized she was alone.

I put the rag down and sprinted after Hailey, leaving Kristen in the house and following her out of the gate. I shivered when I stepped through the gap in the concrete wall; it had been almost 2 years since I crossed through here. I trotted up to Hailey, who was throwing the shovel straight at a walker's chest, throwing it off of the chain-link fence and stabbing it's face with it. I watched her muscles in her arm flex as she did, and shivered. I'd hate to have _that_ turned on me.

"I realized you were out here alone, and I came with you," I said, startling Hailey and making her spin around, shovel at my throat.

"Oh, it's just you," she moved the shovel and continued down the fence, stabbing walkers in the face, making sure they were dead, and then shoving them off.

I followed her, helping push decapitated walkers off of the fence. We worked quickly, rounding the perimeter in almost no time, and moved towards the last undead, moving the shovel towards it to push it.

It sprang to life with a growl, lurching against the fence and flipping over it. It climbed to it's feet and lunged at me, it's arms out-stretched, it's features twisted as it moved to kill me. I screamed and covered my face.

A shovel slammed into it's head, knocking to the ground. It started to get up, only to go limp as Hailey planted her foot on it's chest and stabbed it's neck, chopping through the flesh and down to the bone. The monster climbed to it's feet, it's head hanging on by a strip on flesh and swinging from the side, and looked at me again, taking an unsteady step towards me.

WHANG! Hailey's shovel moved at it a third time, taking it's head off and knocking it back over the fence. The body collapsed on the ground, and with a grunt of effort, Hailey picked it up and tossed it over the fence and onto it's head. The sightless eyes glared back at me as if blaming me for this.

I shuddered, and Hailey noticed. "Let's go back inside, huh?" She offered kindly, and I nodded.

"This is why I don't leave the house. All the monsters that are out here, begging for my blood. And sooner or later, they're gonna get it."


	4. Chapter 3 Newcomers?

**Chapter 3**

_Sydney_

"Do you see anything?"

Margaret was leaning around the corner, looking down the alleyway.

"I'm not leaning far enough," she grunted, grabbing Annie's wrist for leverage and poking her head out around the corner and looking for any danger.

She nearly fell out on the floor. "FREAKING RUN!" She bolted past me just as I heard the scraping of feet and moaning.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Annie screamed at her, taking off in a dead sprint. I looked at Abbey and she shrugged and then took off; I quickly followed. The walkers were coming closer as we left; we could see their shadows. Kara was behind us, running as fast as she could, and passed us easily.

"Where's a way out!?" She yelled at Margaret, who led us here in the first place.

"I don't know!" Margaret kept running, her distance training coming into play as she led us back around a corner. I spotted a ladder, and pointed at it.

"That way!"

"Good thinking!" Margaret turned and leaped, landing about halfway up and scrambling to the top at once. Annie and Kara followed closely, and Abbey rushed up next. I saw the dead closing and with one heave threw myself up the ladder, clumsily clawing the rest of the way up, my foot just clearing the walkers' hands.

"Here!" Margaret grabbed my arms roughly and pulled me up with enormous strength, setting me beside her. She leaned over the ledge and shook her head in disgust. "What are we going to do now? We have those DUMB walking death sentences below us!" She picked up a loose brick and hurled it down into the crowd of snarling creatures. It hit one of the taller, skinnier ones, and with a sharp grunt it stumbled and then fell, the gash in it's head spurting green-black liquid.

"We could look around," Annie murmured, touching Margaret's arm lightly. Margaret's tense muscles on that side of her body relaxed, and she looked up with the fond kindness and love we were used to seeing in her eyes when she addressed Annie.

"That's a good idea. Let's spread out and see if there's another way down. If not, then we see if we can hop buildings." She turned and tapped Annie lightly on the shoulder, and the two of them moved off in the direction of home, walking along the building's edge.

"So... go the other way?" Kara looked at me and grinned; I shrugged.

"I guess..." Abbey and I fell in step as we moved off, with Kara slightly ahead, watching as the zombies followed us, tripping over each other and moaning savagely, grabbing at the wall in a desperate attempt to pull us down.

"How did we get stuck up here in the **first** place?" Abbey asked me, watching Kara carefully as she turned at the corner.

"We followed Margaret as usual. It isn't her fault; she didn't know there was a horde waiting just around the corner."

I followed Abbey as she sped up and caught Kara, asking her, "How many do you think there are?"

"Uh... about 35 to 40. Too many to take on at once. If we could get the suburban Margaret could use it as a battering ram, but it's on the other side of those buildings." She pointed over her shoulder at the set of buildings we had passed earlier.

We met Annie and Margaret in the middle on the other side of the roof. "So did you find anything?" Annie demanded when we stopped walking.

"Nope," Kara answered. "Just walkers. I did a head count; there's 37 of them. Margaret took out one with her brick, but... I doubt there's 37 bricks up here, and that's with perfect aim. And more are bound to show up sooner or later. All the noise they're making is a dinner bell."

"Well... we _could_ jump across at one spot over there," Margaret motioned to where the buildings almost touched at one corner. "If the buildings do as I hope, they'd take us back to the suburban. We could get away there."

"It's worth a try," Abbey answered almost instantly, and then shot off without warning, springing lightly across the gap and onto the other roof. She turned and called back, "It's easy!"

"Abbey! What are you doing!?" I gasped, and ran after her, jumping the gap and landing softly beside her. "You're gonna fall and get killed!"

"No I'm not." Abbey grinned at me and snorted. "Margaret's more likely to be killed; she does all sorts of stupid stuff and throws herself into danger for everyone, especially Annie and Emma. Do you remember when she jumped in front of Annie and shielded her from that walker with her _bare hands_? _She's_ the one that's gonna get killed! She's stupid."

"That's... nice, I think." I watched as Kara managed the gap, and then Annie. "You're probably right; she's even the last to jump. How did she get to be group leader anyways?"

"Because she's the quickest thinker, and the most skilled fighter. And she thinks of everyone and doesn't play favorites when it comes to survival." Abbey watched as Margaret bounded across the drop in one stride, landing almost on top of Annie.

"WATCH IT PHYLLIS!" Annie grabbed her and spun away from the ledge, laughing.

"Can we move on?" Kara was poised at the next jump. "We need to hurry if we wanna outrun that mob."

"Calm down Kuzco," Margaret practically drawled in the most atrocious southern accent I had ever heard. "We'll make it."

We hurried across the next few buildings, and when the suburban came into view I couldn't have been happier. We knocked a couple arrows and shot the walkers that were stumbling around the big truck, then jumped off the roof and sprinted to the suburban. Margaret handed Annie the keys and then began collecting arrows, pulling all five from the bodies and then jumping in the passenger seat of the car, just as the mob that had trapped us earlier came around the corner and gave chase, coming after our truck.

Annie grinned and floored it, and ran over at least five of the suckers, clearing the path. She headed out of the town and onto the main highway, running over a couple more of the walkers before leveling out on the blacktop.

"That was fun huh?" She grinned breathlessly; she rarely drove due to her love of running over the walkers. Margaret wanted the suburban to stay in one piece for a long time, and purposely swerving to hit an undead or two was **not** the way to do it.

"No, that was terrifying. I'm never letting you drive again," Margaret laughed and smacked her on the shoulder. Annie dodged the hit, which jerked her arm and made the van swerve, and I gripped the seat as Abbey was launched into me.

"Careful up there!" Kara growled. "I don't want to get in a crash and be caught 20 miles away from home!"

"Calm down! We could run home," Margaret straightened up.

"_You_ could. I know _I_ couldn't," I shot back and looked at Abbey for conformation.

She nodded. "Neither could I."

"Well, where do you want to try next?" Annie looked back at us.

"That shopping outlet outside of the main city. We haven't been there yet, and I wanna see if it's infested with walkers or not. If not, we can go supply hunting in there."

"Okay," Annie turned down a different road and continued to drive towards a different part of the road.

"One of these days we're going to have to drag Emma out of that house and get here out and hunting," Kara grinned, trying to strike up conversation.

"She would never do that," I shook my head. "She's way too scared of walkers to leave the house."

"I would be too if I was her," Abbey muttered. "I'm still scared of them."

"We all are," Margaret nodded. "I think about how I'm eventually gonna die every night of my life."

_Hailey _

I was helping Emma with the meager collection of dishes that we had when it dawned on me. Where _was_ the group going today?

"Hey Emma," I set down the plate that I was holding on the drying rack, "Where's the gang going for supply collecting?"

"Um, Kara said the little plaza outside of town and then the mall a few miles from there." Emma rubbed another dish clean and handed it to me.

The dish slipped through my numb fingers and hit the ground. My mind was racing. The old mall? The _infested _one? The one that the police used to quarantine people when the disease first broke out?

"Hey, watch it!" Kristen shouted at me from the couch. "Those are hard to find!"

"Uh, I gotta go, now!" I bolted out of the house, leaving Emma and Kristen confused in my wake, and hopped into my rarely-used old sports car and revved up the engine. Emma ran out and banged on the window.

"Where are you going?!" She asked hurriedly.

"To stop the group before they're ripped apart and eaten," I replied, and then started to back up.

"No, wait!" Emma pounded on the window again. "I... I'm coming with you, hang on!" She ran back inside the house while I unhooked all the gates and drove through them, and then came back out with a machete and a pistol tucked in her belt loop. She shut the gate and jumped in the car and said breathlessly, "I got Kristen upstairs. Let's go."

I floored the petal and the car took off, screaming down the dirt road and onto the main one. I flew down the highway, the speedometer hitting around 120 mph.

"Uh, Hailey, you're kinda speeding..." Emma joked nervously, trying to lighten the mood.

"Nah," I shook my head and slammed on the brakes, fish-tailing around a turn and taking off again. We reached the mall in almost no time flat, and to my horror I saw the suburban parked right by the entrance, with Abbey, who was the tail of the group, just slipping through the door.

"No! They just went inside! We have to stop them!"

_Kara_

"Do you see anything?" Sydney whispered, walking forward to stand by Margaret. There was blood stains everywhere, but no sign of walkers.

"So far, no," Margaret answered, and crept forward towards the stairs, her footsteps echoing down the halls.

Just then, Hailey burst through the doors, followed by... _**Emma!?**_

"What are you doing!? Get out, now!" Hailey screamed, and then grabbed Abbey and shoved her towards the entrance. Margaret, who was on the first step of the stairs, froze in horror as a disembodied moan floated down from the top story. A walker appeared at the top, followed by dozens more, and started walking down the stairs, their eyes fixed on us.

"RUN!" Margaret turned and bolted back towards us, dodging a walker that had appeared from one of the ground level shops, and shoved Annie in the direction of the door.

The group turned and ran, bolting out of the doors. As everyone got in the cars, Margaret turned, to my horror, and wielded a machete, starting to chop off heads and legs.

_Margaret_

"Back! Back you filthy *****!" I yelled and chopped into the wave of walkers that were advancing on my friends.

"Margaret, _get __**in the **__**car!**_" Annie screamed behind me, and I felt a tug on my shirt. I dropped my machete and ran, jumping blindly into the suburban and landing on Annie. I scrambled to shut the door as the horde advanced, and then pushed myself up and let Annie crawl out from under me.

"Watch yourself next time, fatty!" She snapped and crawled out from under me into her side into the passenger seat. I straightened up and floored the petal, tearing out of the parking lot and dismembering several walkers. Hailey and Emma followed right behind us, Hailey's shiny red sports car quickly becoming dinged as she ran over walker parts.

We cleared the pack and got onto the main road, pulling away quickly, followed by multiple faster walkers that reached for us. We drove down the road at 90 mph, leaving the infested mall behind.

"Do you think they'll follow us home?" Kara asked nervously from the backseat. She was watching the walkers continue to chase us even as they turned into tiny specks in the background.

"Nah. They're too stupid," I assured her, and let Hailey pass us, Emma's pinkie finger hanging out of the window as the went by.

"That little..." I grinned, and revved the suburban's engine, tearing off after them. The sports car quickly left us in the dust, hitting 135 mph and making my suburban look like a piece of junk. I gave up and slowed, watching as they slowed down to take a turn.

We pulled into our house's driveway and instantly knew something was wrong. The gate was wide open, the electric fence down, and a strange car in the driveway.

_Annie_

There was a strange car in our drive. That meant that Kristen was inside with strange people.

Before any of us could do anything about it, Margaret had slammed the brakes and sprang out of the car, screaming, "KRISTEN!" Hailey was out of her car in a flash too, chasing after her. I cut the car's engine, telling Sydney, "Close the gate!" And sprinted into the house.

I burst through the door and froze. Margaret was standing over a girl with black hair, snarling something down at her, while a light brunette girl, a blonde boy, and a redhead boy stood in a corner cowering.

"... BUT IF YOU EVER TRY TO INTRUDE ON OUR HOME AGAIN I SWEAR I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND FEED IT PERSONALLY TO THE WALKERS!" Margaret was screaming at the girl on the floor, who was curled up and shaking. She obviously was unarmed or Margaret would be dead, and as I waited another brunette girl appeared from the upstairs place.

"Kianna, there's one girl up here who says she part of a group of eight-" she cut off when she saw Margaret, muttered a "Oh crap," and quickly scrambled down the ladder to stand with the others.

Then, yet another girl, this one black, came in the back door. "There's nothing back her-" she stopped talking too when she saw her apparent leader on the ground. The rest of the group was already gathering behind us, weapons ready and drawn.

"There's more of you? Oh, I swear to God, I'm gonna beat you so bad..." Margaret yanked the girl up by the front of her shirt and drew a fist back.

"Margaret! STOP!" I ran forward and grabbed her arm. She turned towards me, eyes blazing, and I stepped back, shocked at the blood-thirsty look in her eyes.

Then she blinked, and it vanished. She threw the girl back down in disgust, and then walked to stand behind me, sorrow and embarrassment in her ever move. I rubbed her shoulder with my hand, then turned towards the group of people standing in our living room.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked the girl named Kianna, who was wiping blood off of her forehead from the impact on the ground. "My name's Kianna," she replied taughtly, blood oozing out of her mouth, "and these are my friends Sierra, Ethan, Thomas, Tomorro, and Meg." She pointed to the brunette girl, the blonde boy, the redhead, the black girl, and the one from upstairs in turn. "We were looking for shelter... you see, um... Tomorro's... been bitten. We need somewhere to stay after we chop the limb off."

"So you break into our house!?" Margaret was shaking with rage; she started to step forward, her eyes re-flaming, whatever anger she had earlier re-sparked, but I put a hand on her shoulder and growled, "No."

"Don't tell me what to do!" She spat at me, and Emma stepped forward, wrapping an arm around her waist and murmuring, "Hey.. it's okay, calm down... they aren't gonna hurt us..." She led her back behind Kara and Abbey.

"Well... is anyone else hurt?" I asked them, looking around the group and scanning for injuries.

"No, just me," Tomorro muttered, pulling her sleeve up to reveal a nasty bite around her wrist. It was red and enflamed, and the scab crusty and yellowish.

"She was defending Ethan when she got chomped," Sierra explained, her voice quiet. Something in me said I could trust her, from her soft blue eyes down to the way she held herself. She was proud and reserved, but modest in how she stood.

I looked at the rest of the group, and they were all either giving me the thumbs up to let them stay except for Margaret, who, if looks could kill, all of the newcomers would be dead.

"Well... I guess you can stay. BUT only downstairs. Upstairs is off-limits. If I catch you upstairs, I swear I'll let Margaret kill you."


	5. Chapter 4 What! She's dead?

**Chapter 4**

"What!? She's dead?!"

_Ethan_

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!?" A small muscular brunette burst through the door just as Thomas, Sierra and I finished cleaning out the kitchen of anything valuable. She leapt on Kianna and punched her face, knocking her to the ground, screaming in her face and repeating, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!?"

"Calm down! We didn't know you lived here!" Kianna spat back at her, and the girl practically _**growled. **_

"Even though you're dumb and good walker bait, I'm gonna let you go, but if you ever try to intrude on our home again I swear I'll rip your head off and feed it personally to the walkers!" Kianna shrank under her promising words, beginning to shake.

The door opened and six more girls poured in; what the heck had we walked into?! The tallest was staring at Kianna's attacker in disbelief; the others were taking us in, giving hostile glares to us.

"Kianna, there's one girl up here who says she's part of a group of eight-" Meg was climbing down the stairs when she saw the other girls and stopped talking. She murmured an, "Oh crap," and flew down the rest of the ladder, walking over to us. "What's going on?" She whispered to me, and I shrugged.

"They came out of no where. The one standing over Kianna came in first, and then the others. Where is Tomorro?"

"Out back looking for weapons," she replied and turned back to face the others. As if on cue, Tomorro came in from the back door, saying out loud, "There's nothing back her-" She too cut off when she saw the brunette and Kianna in the futile position.

The rest of the group was starting to gather behind the tall girl, drawing out machetes and guns.

The brunette looked up swiftly at Tomorro and rage crashed across her face. "There's more of you? Oh, I swear to God, I'm gonna beat you so bad..." she grabbed the front of Kianna's shirt and yanked her to her feet, then drew her arm back, fist ready to crash into Kianna's face.

The tall girl leapt forward. "Margaret! STOP!" She grabbed Margaret's fist just as she was about to let the fist fly. Margaret whipped around, her eyes shooting flames, and the tall girl stepped back, shock covering her face. Then Margaret hung her head in so sort of shame and then threw Kianna back to the ground. She then moved away from her and stood by the tall girl. The taller girl rubbed Margaret's shoulder and then turned to address us, namely Kianna, who was standing up and wiping blood off of her forehead from the impact on the ground.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The tall girl asked Kianna. Kianna narrowed her eyes in suspicion and answered shortly, "My name's Kianna, and these are my friends Sierra, Ethan, Thomas, Tomorro, and Meg." She pointed to each of us in turn. My mind was racing; what were they gonna do to us? Margaret was still spitting with anger, but the tall girl that she obviously had a deep connection with seemed really nice and not a killer.

"We were looking for shelter... you see, um... Tomorro's... been bitten. We need somewhere to stay after we chop the limb off."

My mind flashed back to that horrid hour earlier that day. Tomorro had been fighting off the dead people in front of me, using just a machete when one came up behind her and sank it's teeth into her wrist. She had screamed and turned to chop the zombie's head in two; then she stopped and stared at her wrist in horror, dropping the machete. I had picked it up and continued to fight off zombies, until we had fought our way out of the building and back to the car.

"So you break into our house!?" Margaret was walking forward, her eyes on fire, when the tall girl put her hand on Margaret's shoulder and growled a "No," at her.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Margaret turned on her again, and another girl from the group, this one a shorter brunette with brown eyes that could've been Margaret's sister if it weren't for the slightly different facial features, stepped forward and wound an arm around Margaret's waist and murmured something into her ear, and then turned and moved her back behind the rest of the group, giving her a hug and continuing to whisper stuff in her ear, much to Margaret's dislike, because her face was livid and she kept hissing responses.

"Well... is anyone else hurt?" The apparent leader asked, looking all of us over.

"No, just me," Tomorro said in a low tone, and rolled up her sleeve, showing the scabbing, swollen bite on her wrist.

"She was defending Ethan when she got chomped," Sierra explained beside me, giving my arm a pat as she talked. She stared straight into the other girl's eyes, obviously trying to be honest and win her over. I saw the rest of her group smirk, as if it was amusing to them that a girl had been hurt fighting for a _boy_. Then the tall girl turned and looked at them, and they all flashed a thumbs up at her, except for Margaret, who was seething with rage and squeezing her twin companion's hand off of her body.

The leader of the group turned back to us, and looked at Kianna. "Well... I guess you can stay. BUT only downstairs. Upstairs is off-limits. If I catch you upstairs," she paused, her gaze hardening and cold blue flames flicking through them, "I swear I'll let Margaret kill you."

I stepped back slightly and bumped into Meg, who put her hands up. "R-really?" Meg spoke quietly as if she couldn't quite believe that we had won them over. I couldn't blame her; Margaret was still muttering incoherent things and shaking her head over and over, her whole body apparently consumed with anger.

"Oh, and by the way," A new girl stepped forward, this one tall, but not as tall as their leader, with hazel eyes and said, "I'll tell you who's what, and what we're all like as best as possible. I'm Hailey, and the girl you found upstairs," she looked at Meg, "is my twin sister Kristen."

She pointed at the girl who was dragging Margaret towards the stairs, quietly and rapidly murmuring things to her, "You already know Margaret. She's actually really nice and funny, but she's extremely protective and very strong, so you might wanna stay clear of her for a couple of days or she will literally rip you _apart_ and kill you. Not even joking; she has killed before.

"The girl that's with her is Emma. She's very sweet and nice, and almost _never_ leaves the house. She's kinda like an idol for everyone. She also takes the motherly position over everyone, but at the same time will act needy and make you squeal in frustration when you can't do anything to satisfy her needs.

The girl that discussed staying here with you is Annie. She's Margaret's closest friend, and kinda like second in command. Margaret leads us, of course. She's the strongest and has the best reflexes, and can think faster about ways out of tight spots. But Annie and Margaret are extremely close; you almost never see them apart. Annie's freakin' hilarious, and very compassionate and understanding, and gives compliments generously, so if you're needing to get something off your mind, go talk to her. She also keeps her mouth shut.

"The blonde and the brunette sitting on the couch together are Sydney and Abbey. They're always together too; you don't _ever_ see them apart. They even can finish each other's sentences if they want to. They're both really nice, but I never really _actually_ gotten to _know _know them, so you'll have to figure them out for yourselves.

"And the blonde that went outside to unload the weapons out of the car is Kara. She's truly amazing; she's got quick reflexes, is extremely flexible, and very fast, and is almost as strong as Margaret. She and Emma are close too; they sometimes go on missions together alone. They usually hang with Margaret and Annie, but sometimes, ya know... they just sit together and talk. But Kara's really nice and all, and is funny.. ya I don't really know her as well either. Talk to Emma or Margaret about her true personality. I know the way she treats me versus Emma are completely separate things."

Hailey then kinda bowed humorously, and said, "Just talk to someone if you have questions. I promise you, no one but Margaret bites."

I watched her, speechless, as she walked away and quickly climbed up the ladder, disappearing up into the top story of the house. Just then, Kara came through the front door, carrying multiple guns, and I rushed forward.

"Here, let me help you," I took some of the load from her, and she looked at me, catching my gaze with her warm brown eyes.

"Thanks... Ethan?" She guessed, looking me over briefly before continuing through the living room towards a gun case.

"You got it! That's me," I grinned and started setting guns up in the case. She did too, and then turned towards me, holding her hand out.

"I'm Kara. My last name is Kuczkowski if it matters, but I quit using it a little over a year ago when it started to not matter." I took her hand and shook it, noting the muscles bulging up her arm and the firm grip she had. Then she let go, and the muscles vanished into her slim arms.

"My last name was Beam.. but you're right, it doesn't matter anymore." I turned and walked back to Thomas, shrugging and saying, "So what'd ya wanna do? Drive into town and start supply hunting?"

"Uh, not a good idea," Sydney called over to us, looking up from her conversation with Abbey. "We went into town earlier and stirred up the walkers. They actually are probably headed here right now, following us."

"What!? Then shouldn't we run!?" Kianna was regaining her confidence, wiping the blood off of her face and starting to walk towards her.

Abbey shrugged. "We don't have to run. The fence..."

"...is really strong," Sydney finished, and pointed out of the window. "I don't know how a zombie's gonna get through that eight foot concrete wall, but that's just me."

"And before that is a chain link fence, then a barb wire fence, and before _that _is an electric fence. I wanna see anything other than a freakin' T-rex get through there," Abbey concluded, smiling in satisfaction.

"Um... you could go and start clearing brush on the far edge of the property, by the barn. It's starting to grow up back there," Kara pointed outside. "There's machetes, axes, and a chainsaw out back. Use the chainsaw only if you have to; it runs on gas, and we try to conserve that."

"Oh, okay," I nodded, and turned to walk out of the back door. "You guys coming? Or are you gonna try to talk Tomorro into chopping the limb now?"

"The latter choice," Kianna responded shortly. She was talking to Tomorro, her brown eyes determined. Tomorro looked terrified, staring at her arm in horror. Meg and Sierra were patting her on the back, trying to calm her down. It wasn't working.

"Let's just go," Thomas interrupted my thoughts, and I followed him out back to the side of the building, choosing an axe and beginning to trudge towards the tall, old barn.

_Emma_

"Margaret, I don't know why you're so worked up," I rubbed her shoulder gently as she sat beside me, staring coldly off into space. It's just for a little while, and it's not going to hurt anyone to let them stay here until Tomorro's either healed or killed."

"What if she turns before we can kill her and bites someone?" She looked up, still shaking slightly, and growled that at me.

"Then we'll deal with that when we come to it. But it's not going to happen. Why would we let a walker purposely come to life in the house? I'd shoot her before the operation was even over if we see that she's not going to make it," I told her, trying to brush her worry from her shoulder.

Margaret looked up at me and in the eyes, and I saw for the first time truly the most terrifying thing ever. The anger, the hate that I saw in her eyes was _not _Margaret. Whatever was going on inside her mind, was **not **her thinking. She pinned me with her glare and snarled, "So why don't we kill her _**now**_ and then run off the rest of the group?"

"Margaret... you need to.." I stood up and started backing out of the room, the fury and malice that was swirling through her eyes scaring me. "You need to.. calm down and... think a little bit..." I shut the door and whipped around, thoroughly scared at what I had seen in my friend. How was the normally docile, teasing, easy going Margaret capable of showing such bad energy? How was she capable of that kind of _**hate?**_

I screamed down the stairs and grabbed Annie's arm, to which she yanked it away with a quick, "Margaret, don't grab me! You _know_ I don't like to be grabbed!" Then she realized it was me and asked, "What's up? You look worried."

"You need to calm Margaret down. She..ah.. I'm pretty sure she's capable of murdering someone right now.. and I'm scared she's gonna... do something...bad." I finished my sad excuse of an explanation.

Annie nodded, getting at once the message I was trying to send. "I'll go see her. You stay down here and keep an eye on the newcomers." She turned and strode swiftly up the ladder, and then I heard her say, "Margaret? Honey? What's the matt-" and then the door shut and her voice became muffled.

I shrugged and cast my gaze towards Kianna and her gang, wincing when my eyes traveled down her jaw. It was swollen and turning a muted red, a thin cut still wet with blood. Margaret must've punched her to knock her down. I shuddered. I didn't know Margaret could have a side like that towards _people_. And to think that just yesterday she was laying with her head in my lap, making a noise like a content kitten.

_Sierra_

"Tomorro, com'mon, we gotta chop the arm or you're gonna die," Kianna looked in her eyes urgently. Tomorro shook her head, fear filling her eyes. She wasn't even speaking, just staring at her arm like it was some soft of disease.

"Would you go ask them if they at least know where some painkillers are? Or medical supplies that we could run and get?" Kianna turned and looked at me, her eyes visibly conflicted. Panic was fighting calm, and it looked like panic was winning.

"Sure," I chirped, trying to lighten the mood and turned to walk up to the girl Emma.

"Uh.. hey," I looked down.

"Hey," Emma looked back at me, her brown eyes looking me up and down before settling on my face, her gaze softening at my nervous body language.

"Um.. do any of you have any medical supplies? Or know where some are?" I asked quietly, scared of her reaction.

"The most we have here are Neosporin and butterfly closures. There's a hospital everyone knows of though, and I'm sure someone could take you to it." Emma looked almost apologetic.

"Thank you," I nodded slightly and turned, going back to Kianna and repeating what Emma had told me.

"They do? That's good. We'll leave Tomorro here and go get the supplies." Kianna decided, half telling us that, half telling herself. She looked at Tomorro. "Don't worry; you'll be fine. We're gonna go get proper surgical tools and then you won't feel a thing until we're done."

She left us and asked Emma to fetch Annie, then waited impatiently until the brunette with the brilliant eyes returned. "Emma tells us that there's a hospital nearby. Could you take us there so that we can get stuff for Tomorro?"

Annie blinked in surprise. "You do realize that it's in the middle of town, and we'd have to travel by rooftop for about a mile, and even then be heavily armored and on the alert for the entire time?"

"I'm willing to risk it." Meg spoke for the first time since they'd caught us in here.

"Same." I spoke grudgingly; half of me wanted to stay here, where it was safe. The other half didn't want Tomorro to die.

"Then let's go," Annie turned and went back upstairs, and returned a moment later with Hailey, Kara, a very furious Margaret, and some truck keys.

"We don't want her to die, Margaret. Be nice." Annie was throwing the words over her shoulder as she ran out of the door.

Kianna, Meg, and I followed, Kianna asking Sydney if Tomorro could lie down on the couch and rest.

"Sure!" Sydney hopped up along with Abbey and went to the opposite side of the room, sitting in pair of chairs while Tomorro fell asleep almost instantly.

I walked out of the door into the hot afternoon air, my forehead instantly breaking out in sweat. Margaret came around the end of the house with a couple of bags, her muscles straining, and I realized they were full of _guns. _

She pitched them into the back of the huge white van, and then climbed into the passenger's seat and sat motionless, the AC making her skin flush. Kianna brought the boys, and they piled into the 3rd seat, while I squeezed in rather awkwardly in the middle with Hailey and Kara. Kianna and Meg jumped into the back to hang onto the sides with the gun piles. Annie got in the driver's seat, threw the van in reverse and backed out of the opened gate.

Kara hopped out and shut it afterwards, and then we turned around and started down the rough backroad and out onto the main highway. We hung a left, heading for a different town then were we had come from, and sped down the road in silence, everyone scared of Margaret except for her own friends, and I even saw Annie look a her nervously.

We turned and pulled up next to the beginning of a series of buildings, one of which had a ladder beside it. We parked and jumped out immediately, Margaret grabbing both bags of guns and slinging them over her shoulders, then starting up the ladder, grunting with effort. I don't blame her; she was climbing with probably about 150 pounds on her back.

Hailey saw me staring at her, and I guess my face was kind of amazed, because she shook her head. "The girl is mad. She's already the strongest; it doesn't take much to make her a strength goddess."

She turned and looked over her shoulder. "Crap, we got company!" She shoved me towards the ladder and climbed quickly, everyone else streaming up the ladder. We climbed up quickly, the walkers not even coming close, and Margaret started handing out guns.

She handed assorted rifles and shotguns to some, pistols to others, and then chose a handgun to tuck into her belt loop and grabbed two machetes.

"Margaret, are you going to be able to carry anything?" Annie frowned at her.

"Nope! I'm the first line of defense." Margaret grinned for the first time since I'd met her.

"Crazy..." Annie muttered and turned away from her, walking towards the opposite end. "This way guys."

We jumped from rooftop to rooftop, traveling swiftly. The one walker that had managed to get onto the roof was quickly beheaded by Margaret. She moved with quick precision, her muscles bulging as the machete swung out and sliced through the walker's neck. It fell to the ground, its body staying standing for a second, and then fell over the edge, landing on another walker below and slamming it to the ground. The second walker hit it's head and did not get up. She grunted in satisfaction, cold malice swooping across her eyes, and then ran to jump to the next building.

We traveled for almost twenty minutes and then jumped onto the hospital's roof. "This way," Annie kicked down the door and ran into the building. I heard a muffled thump and then stepped down to see Annie thumping another walker quietly with the butt of her gun in the head.

We ran into a nearby surgical suite and let Kianna start to fill the bags. "Uh oh. We got company!" Kara, who had been keeping watch, was looking down the hall. I poked my head out and saw a huge herd of walkers heading towards us. Kara shot the first couple, and then shrieked, "MARGARET! GET OUT HERE NOW!"

Something shoved me, and Margaret shot out into the hallway, wielding both of her machetes and becoming a walker killing machine. She slashed and spun, slicing through necks and arms, fighting off the enormous horde. Kara shot down what she could around Margaret, but since Margaret was doing an elaborate dance to keep from getting grabbed, aim was hard.

"Okay, Kianna's got the bag full; let's go!" Annie charged out and towards the staircase at the same time that the door on the opposite side of the surgical suite gave in and another wave of walkers advanced. Everyone shrieked and ran for the staircase.

Then Kianna tripped.

"Kianna! NO!" Ethan screamed, at the same time a walker dropped to it's knees and sank it's teeth into her head.

Annie stood in shock for a moment, then shot Kianna in the head and ran for the staircase. I ran too, looking back to see a walker rip Kianna's stomach open and her intestines pour out onto the ground.

Margaret was backing away from the other group, still slashing, as I stumbled up the staircase, my mind numb with horror.

Everyone ran back up onto the roof and quickly jumped across to the other roof, then stopped.

"Where's Kianna?" Margaret huffed indignantly, looking around for the brown-haired girl.

Thomas looked down, his face covered in shock. "She... th-they... she was... they c-came so quickly... s-she t-tripped...a-a-and..." he broke off, tears welling in his eyes.

"What!? She's dead?!" Meg's face was twisted in surprise and sadness.

"Yes," Annie looked away politely. I felt sadness washing over me for our group leader.

"Well... anyone grab the medical bag? Or is it _still_ in there?" Margaret looked at the horde of walkers that had gathered on the roof, growling and reaching for us.

"I..I've got it," Hailey raised her arm and showed it to us.

"Then let's go before we wake up all of the walkers in town." Margaret was already jumping across the rooftop onto the next, her calves bulging from carrying two machetes and a gun, and her newly acquired AK-47. We all followed, too speechless to talk.

We slipped down the ladder and jumped into the truck, throwing the guns in a pile in the back and kicking the walkers off that came around the corner.

Annie drove us quietly back to the farmhouse, and when we pulled up to the gate, Kara hopped out and opened it.

I will never get her scream out of my mind.


	6. Chapter 5 Walker In The House!

**Chapter 5**

"Walker In The House!"

_Margaret_

I shook my head at the other group's sadness. True, they had lost their leader, but Kianna seemed like she wasn't close to anyone. I think what got them was when the walkers started tearing her body apart right in front of them.

I walked into the house, looking around for the others, and noticed strangely that no one was on the first floor. I gripped the handle of my twin machetes and walked quietly into the house, looking around for my friends. Then I noticed it just as I heard a moan behind me; Tomorro wasn't on the couch anymore. I whipped around and held my sword up, letting Tomorro, who was now a walker, impale herself as she lurched for me. I pulled the machete out and then took both of them and stabbed them through her shoulders, pushing her out of the door.

"MARGARET! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Annie screamed when she saw me back Tomorro out of the house and start towards the gate.

"I'm not doing anything. Walkers don't die until you either chop their heads off or destroy the brain. I'm only pushing her back out of our property... I'm not gonna kill her. Hailey, get the gate." I continued to back up Tomorro, who was snarling and grabbing at me.

Thomas and Ethan gasped and turned away, staring at what once was their friend, reduced to a snarling, red eyed monster with no other thought than to kill and eat us.

Meg burst into tears on the spot, and Sierra put her arm around her, patting her on the back gently, while staring sorrowfully at the walker.

I walked through the open gate and then, very carefully, removed one of the swords from her chest. She lurched forward a bit more, sliding further onto the machete, blood spurting out and splashing my clothes, and then the machete hit bone and she stopped with a jerk, still snarling for me. I shoved her away, quickly drawing out the machete and ran for the gate, slamming it shut behind me. The walker staggered forward and grabbed the gate, shaking it in anger.

I sliced off her fingers where they were sticking through the fence and then turned around to strode away, leaving the severed appendages twitching on the ground. I put the electric fence back up and returned back into the house, running at once upstairs, worry for Emma and the others filling my mind.

I found them cowering in the back bedroom.

"What happened?" I demanded, helping Emma up off of her feet and pulling her into a hug.

"To...Tomorro turned while we were... talking to her... she, she p-passed out... and then came to as... a ...w-walker and attacked us." She stuttered, terrified, and clung to me, staring over my shoulder at something invisible.

"It's okay. She's gone now. She won't be back for a while," I comforted her, petting her hair and looking over her at Abbey and Sydney. "Did she bite any of you?"

"No," Sydney replied; she, surprisingly, seemed to be the least shaken from my own group, while Emma was obviously very unsettled from watching a person turn. It had been about a year since we had seen true human death; it has all been walkers and animals. We hadn't even _seen_ other humans in 5 months.

Sydney grabbed Abbey's wrist. "Com'mon, let's get downstairs and clean our guns! And I want to talk to that girl Sierra; she seems interesting, and will definitely have stories to tell. Who knows? Maybe we even knew her a long time ago." Abbey rolled her eyes at me and followed the excited Sydney down the stairs.

Just then, Kristen appeared in the doorway, holding her injured leg in the air and leaning on the doorframe. "I heard there was a walker in the house!" She exclaimed breathlessly, her eyes wide with panic.

"Chill out child," I grinned over Emma's head. "I took care of it. Looks like it's time for you to go back to bed rest."

"What? No. I'm not going back there. I'm almost healed!" Kristen whined, then looked at the way Emma was clinging onto me. "Um.. you two having a little one-on-one in here alone?"

"NO!" I snarled, my face turning scarlet. "The walker scared her, and Sydney and Abbey were JUST in here! And besides, I'm STILL into boys, stupid! Have you SEEN the two new guys downstairs? They're RIPPED!"

"Geez, calm down! I was kidding!" Kristen held a hand up, her face teasing. "But I didn't know there were boys in that group! I thought it was only girls."

"There's two; one of them seems to have a connection with Kara though; I don't know if it's gonna be a best friends thing or even more." I winked and then tried to pull Emma off of me. "Sweetie, the walker is LONG gone. I need to change Kristen bandages-"

"NO YOU DON'T!"

"-and then clean my guns and machete. Why don't you go with Kara to talk to Thomas?"

Emma removed herself from me and started towards the staircase, her eyes still kinda dazed.

"She can go on a rescue mission with Hailey and not be fazed, but watch one person turn and she has a meltdown?" Kristen was watching her go.

"Shut up, log-head. She hasn't seen that in three years. She usually stays here, where it's safe, remember?" I moved towards Kristen and picked her up, saying, "Downstairs we go! We need to get you acquainted with what's left of the group. Kianna was just killed in town and Tomorro turned, so I don't know how talkative they'll be."

I carefully made my way down the stairs with Kristen, trying not to trip over myself on the steep decent down. I hit the ground, an looked around, noticing that Abbey, Sydney, Sierra, Meg, and Kara were all crammed on the sofa, while the other four chairs were filled with Annie, Emma, Thomas, and Hailey. Ethan was sitting on the floor by Kara's feet, and there was a relaxed atmosphere about everything.

I shrugged and carried Kristen to the kitchen counter, were I set her down and then stretched her leg out, carefully unwrapping the sliced flesh and pulling it off. Kristen flinched when the last part of it stuck, and I had to peel it off. It ripped her leg hairs out, and Kristen sucked in her breath. We hadn't shaved in three years either, and it was showing. Our legs were hairy as crap.

On the other hand, we had like three pairs of tweezers, so facial hair was no problem. We also kept toothbrushes and brushed when we remembered, and had two or three hairbrushes that we all shared.

I wadded the old bandage into a ball and tossed it into the trashcan, then opened the cabinet above Kristen's head and pulled out an aid kit. I opened it and chose the anti-fungal and antibiotics, and then used what must've been a couple thousands Q-tips to smear the cream on the closing wound, that was a healthy pink and scabbing nicely.

Then I wrapped it in gauze and wrapped _that_ with vet wrap. I used a sharpie and wrote _'Do not touch' _on it, then smacked her shoulder and told her, "You can start walking on it."

"Since when did you start becoming a doctor?" She asked teasingly, and slid gingerly from the counter.

"Since when I took a class over that crap my last year in school, as a freshman, and learned how take care of wounds and such," I grinned back at her, and held out my hand as she grabbed it, having tried a step on her game leg and it buckled.

"Ya, ya, get over yourself," the 19 year old brunette replied flippantly, looking at me. "Isn't my fault your smart."

"What do you mean 'fault'?" I helped her walk her first actual steps since the accident.

"It's a burden to be smart. All that knowledge.. dang. I'm happy without it," Kristen grinned; she may be a year and two months older than me, but she had taken all remedial classes in high school; I took mostly advanced classes and was busying planning a future.

"You're right; ignorance is bliss," I snorted back, and abandoned her to walk on her own.

"Hey, I need help!" Kristen protested, waving her arms wildly before falling down, causing everyone in the living room to look up and laugh.

Kristen used her good leg to crawl to her feet, and frowned at me, then hobbled over to Hailey, where she kicked Hailey out of the chair and sat down. I smacked myself down in front of Annie's chair and used her legs as back props.

"So how's everyone doing?" Kristen asked, looking around at the rest of the group.

"Kristen, you were in _earshot _for five minutes now! I think it's obvious!" Hailey snorted immediately at her sister. Ethan snorted and eyed both of them, his eyes going over both girls' faces and then settling back on the floor. Kara was eyeing him at her feet, not quite sure what to make of the obviously confident male.

_Annie_

The situation instantly became tense when Margaret entered. They had seen her attack their now dead leader, then stab their undead friend with two machetes and push her through the gate. They had seen her uncanny abilities with her duo machetes and the rage she could unleash on the walkers. And I could tell; it _**scared them.**_

Funny thing is, though, when this whole apocalypse broke out, I had known Margaret beforehand, and she was always (for the most part) a big teddy bear on the inside when she presented herself as a grizzly bear that was always poised for attack. I never really saw her actual mean side, though I heard about it several times and saw it in action once, but never had it directed at me.

So when she turned towards me after I stopped her from punching Kianna, with the cold blue flames in her eyes burning through me, I finally felt the fear that others had described to me. She pinned me with just her stare. And for the first time in the 6 years that I had known Margaret (well, the 4 that I _actually _knew her as a best friend and not just a horse riding buddy), I was scared of her.

Now she was leaning on my legs at me feet like some kind of house dog, her narrowed eyes studying each of the newcomers carefully. She narrowed her eyes even further at Ethan when she caught him staring at the twins, and he squirmed under the ferocious glare, turning his gaze at the floor.

I bumped her lightly in the back with my shin, and she momentarily flicked her gaze up at me, her eyes going back to their soft, almost loving look that she always addressed me with. She shook her head lightly and winked, which told me she was purposely trying to make the other crew uncomfortable, and then broke away from my eyes to single out Meg, who noticed instantly and withered under her eyes.

The conversation was started back up by now. I threw my opinion out there frequently, and sometimes cracked a joke to make people laugh, but for the most part got a kick out of what Margaret was doing to the newbies. I now new what she was doing; figuring out who was the toughest in the group, and who would step up to take Kianna's place.

She fixed her brilliant brown eyes on the redhead Thomas, and to both our surprise, he raised his head and held it. She did the same narrowing of the eyes, and he just did the same.

"Uh, Margaret, Thomas..." Kara was looking at both of them. "Is there something going on?"

"Nah." Margaret shrugged and released him. He nodded in agreement and relaxed back into his chair, flicking his long hair out of his eyes.

"So how long have you been here anyways?" Sierra was asking curiously, looking around appreciatively at the house. The interior was clearly well broken-in, and the doorknobs used and the stairs scuffed. The furniture was a bit on the rugged side too, some strings and tufts of stuffing sticking out here and there, but compared to the measly places we had seen some survivors in, this was paradise.

"Um... three years now right?" Emma was looking at Kara for conformation.

"Ee-yap. Three years," Kara nodded, patting the armrest of the couch. "And we haven't had a walker get in in two years and three hundred and sixty-**four** days. Until today."

"Shame that our record was broken," Margaret mumbled, making the others stare in disbelief. I kicked her back again.

"Margaret! Don't be insensitive! How would you feel if you lost two of us in one day?"

"Depending on the person, I'd party," she snickered back, making all of us roll our eyes.

"What the hell are we gonna do with you?" I gasped, exasperated at her four year old behavior.

"The question is, what am I gonna do with _**you**_? I'm boss around here.. well, at least until you give me the eyes... and I have the most muscles. And I'm the best with the machetes." Margaret was smiling smugly; I hated that look on her.

"Uh, sweetie, hate to break it to you but... those are **your** machetes. We don't want to touch them, let alone get to be handy at fighting with them. You're very protective," Kristen snorted, looking at her with a face mirroring my own.

"Even Annie doesn't mess with them," Hailey agreed.

"So I take it Annie and Margaret are close," Ethan interjected, making both Margaret and I uncomfortable. She squirmed at my feet and pressed her back against my legs, forcing them apart so that her back was against the base of the chair and my legs dangled lightly over her shoulders. Wasn't the best reaction to that particular question, but it was her first response. Get closer to me and further away from the problem.

"Of course! They're like..." Abbey paused, thinking of the right word.

"..sisters!" Sydney finished for her.

"Okay bob-sy twins, we get your point," Hailey laughed, shaking her head at everyone.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm turning in." Kristen stood and stretched. "There's spare bedding in the closet in the back hall newbies. Make yourself comfortable down here or in the halls and forth bedroom upstairs." She paused and looked at me and Margaret for conformation on that offer. I nodded and kicked Margaret, who was shaking her head, until she started nodding too, rubbing her back.

I stood too, stretching and then heading towards the stairs, Margaret following closely. "Do you think they'll figure out which bedroom is the fourth one?" She asked, climbing the stairs behind me. I snorted.

"Shouldn't be too hard."


	7. Chapter 6 Days Gone By

**Chapter 6**

Days Gone By

_Margaret_

"Sierra you little ass! Get outta the snacks!" I barked at the light brunette, who jumped and spun around.

"Margaret! Jeez!" Sierra threw a cracker at me, and I caught it, shoving it in my mouth. Sierra spoke again. "You've developed quite a mouth! That language'll get you in TROUBLE!"

I mocked her catchphrase. "GOOOOOOD! Besides, who am I gonna get in trouble with anyways?"

"I don't know... just.. in TROUBLE!" Sierra poked my stomach, and I squeaked, backing away from her and watching her, fondness for the brunette flowing through me. She had become part of the family in my mind. The new kids all had.

The had been with us for six months now, and in that time, winter had set in and we were all freezing cold. The house had no electricity and therefore no heater; we had a fireplace and several sweaters and blankets. And that was it.

Sierra had taken up quite well with almost everyone; she liked Annie and I, she was friends with Emma, but where she really had settled in was with Sydney and Abbey. I didn't think someone could crack that shell, but she did, and the three were almost inseparable.

Meg was partial to Annie and I, though she was mostly a loner for the most part. Ethan and Thomas were both close to Kara, and Thomas was also mine and Annie's friend. We all were acutely aware of gender differences, so when we finally let them settle in upstairs, Ethan and Thomas got the fourth bedroom and the girls spread out through the bedrooms we already had. Sierra went in with Sydney and Abbey, Kristen, who's leg was fully healed, came in with us, and Meg went into Kara and Emma's room.

Right now, I was going to the kitchen to make breakfast, and Sierra was stealing **my **crackers. That's a no-no. My food.

"I don't CARE if I get in trouble!" I grinned and picked her up, throwing her over my shoulder.

"HEY! Put me DOWN!" She half laughed, half shrieked, hitting my back with her fists and kicking her feet.

"Shut up fool! You're gonna attract walkers!" I carried her into the living room and threw her down on the sofa and on top of a napping Sydney, who immediately awoke with a scream and shoved Sierra aside easily, getting her fists ready to fight a walker.

"Wha... is this a sick joke or something?" She glared at Sierra and I, and I held my hands up.

"I didn't do it!"

"Buull!" Sierra scoffed at me.

"All I did was drop her!" I turned away, laughing, and sprinted upstairs, back to the sleeping members of the family. I entered my bedroom and jumped on Annie's bed, straddling her and shouting, "WAKEY WAKEY! GET UP!"

"Get OFF of me you big mothafucker," Annie groaned and slapped my shoulders half-heartedly.

"Come on, you twat-waffle! Time to go kill walkers!" I started tickling her sides, and she twisted under me, then threw me off and sat up.

"That's a hell of a way to be awakened." She shook her head and combed her hair back with her hands.

"Oh, get over yourself and go put a bra on," I laughed, giving her a hand up out of her bed, then grabbing her in a quick hug (in which she snapped, "Let go!" and shoved me away like she _always_ does) and then dropped my arms, turning back to the Chamberlains, who were sleeping head to foot in the same bed.

"Hey Kriiiiiisteeeen!" I shook her awake. "It looks like you and your sister had fun last night!"

Kristen sat up sleepily and looked at me, then at her Hailey, then herself, and sat thinking for a moment, then looked up at me sharply. "Shut UP! We did not!"

"Ya sureee!" I leaned down and growled, "Payback for six months ago."

"You hold onto too much stuff." She shook her head, then clubbed Hailey over the head. "Hey, wake up and stop sawing logs. Time to work."

I just shook my head as the two quickly got into a fight, and left the room to see Annie doing my daily rounds, waking everyone up with the warning, "Margaret's coming."

"Hey! Not fair! That's my job!" I whined at her, and she looked at me, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"No, what's not fair is having to wake up to YOU jumping on me and tickling me. I'm just saving them from the same fate since you decided to be annoying today."

Uh oh. She was in a bad mood today. And that made me instantly miserable.

"Oh..okay," I looked away from Annie's flaming eyes and at the floor, scuffling my feet while she walked by and down the stairs. I stared after her, trying to figure out how she could pick days when she could treat me like _trash_ and love everyone else like it was a fuckin' high school reunion, and then shrugged. She was the best friend I could ever have, and was entitled to have days when she was fed up with me.

"Well, you heard her, guys. Get up," I said shortly, sticking my head into Kara, Emma, and Meg's room and looking at them. Emma was staring at me, trying to figure out what had rained on my parade, while Kara ripped her sleeping shirt off and slipped into her daytime shirt, doing the same with her pants.

"Well Kara, taking it off right here I guess!" Meg laughed and collected her stuff, heading for the downstairs bathroom to change and everything.

"Who's gonna wake the boys?" Emma asked, looking past me and down the hall.

"I will!" Kara sprang to her feet, tugging a shoe on, and vanished past me, crossing the hall and entering Ethan and Thomas' room.

"Come on sweetheart," I motioned to Emma to hurry. She was pulling her pants up, her shirt changed. She raked a brush through her hair and pulled it back in a ponytail, then stood.

"I'm ready! Gosh, you're in a mood!"

"No I'm not.." I looked at her quizzically, following her out of the bedroom and downstairs.

"Yes you are!" She laughed. "Com'mon, let's eat breakfast and then I'll help you clear the fence of walkers!"

"What? _You?" _I looked at her in surprise. "Emma Fullen, clearing _fences _of _walkers?"_

"Yes, Emma Fullen. I had to with Hailey; I went into town to rescue you even. So let me have a shovel and help out with the real danger for once," she smirked at my, and then pushed past me, my mind still spinning, and started to open the cabinet, pulling out an older bag of chips. She opened them and grimaced when the smell hit her nose, then grabbed a few and shoved them in her mouth. She shrugged; the chips must've been halfway decent, and then shoved another handful in and offered the bag to me.

I shook my head no, murmuring absentmindedly, "I'm not really hungry right now," and starting towards the back door, grabbing a couple of shovels and returning to the kitchen. I handed a shovel to Emma, then confirmed where we were going with Kara and Ethan, who were in deep conversation about... nyan cat? The old cartoon that was on the internet? Oh well. Kara nodded, and then Emma and I were going outside into the front yard, heading towards the fence.

"So tell me about the time you helped Hailey clear the fences," I grinned at her, opening the gates and letting us through.

"It was easy, really. I just got attacked, but Hailey chopped it's head off." Emma mocked being nonchalant.

"One attacked you? But they're usually dead!" I stopped at the first walker, who was so burned that you couldn't even tell the gender, and whacked at it's head. The head came off with a snap and the body fell back onto the ground, where other walkers had accumulated over time.

"Well, this one was alive. When Hailey went at it, it flailed around and flipped over the fence, and _of course _came after the unarmed girl. I almost got bitten, too, but then Hailey turned into God and chopped it's head off." Emma took her turn and used the shovel's side to slice through the next dead walker's neck, sending the head bouncing. The body slipped from the wires and fell, several bones snapping as the brittle frame crashed to the ground.

We carried on clearing the fence around the length of the property, and then returned to the house, starting to close all of the gates. I jumped when something crashed in the bushes, and then my jaw dropped when I saw the amount of walkers that were advancing.

"Get through the gates!" I yelled at Emma and started fumbling to connect the electric fence. Emma was already clear of all the gates, and I heard her turn the wire on as soon as I dropped it. I sped through the barbed wire and chain link, then shut the giant metal door that was hinged to the concrete wall and sprinted to the house, Emma right in front of me.

"Where did they come from?!" Emma asked breathlessly as we jumped onto the porch. I could hear the walkers frying on the fence behind us, the hungry moans and growls sending shivers down my spine. We hadn't left the house in three weeks; I forgot just how grotesque the walkers' noises were.

I flung the door open and ran in on a bunch of surprised teenagers. "Everyone upstairs now!" I half shouted, my voice panicky, and everyone was on their feet at once, rushing towards the stairs. Annie was the first one up, followed by the twins and then the boys.

I turned and shut the front door, getting a glimpse of the advancing hoard's feet from under the giant steel door. They had knocked the electric fence down, and were leaning heavily on the barbed wire, their shrieks reaching my ears. I shivered, slammed the doors, grabbed a couple of pistols and my machetes, and then took to the stairs. I climbed up, then shut the emergency door over the stairs and locked it in place.

I took a deep breath, slowed my pounding heart, and then walked to my bedroom and found everyone crowded into it, it being the only room facing towards the gates with windows low enough to see out of them. The boy's room windows were up high, where no one could reach them, and were useful only for light sources.

I looked out of the window and saw that around the gate, the barbed wire was down, too. The chain link fence thankfully stopped the walkers in their tracks, and they were reaching desperately through the wires at nothing, their teeth visibly gnashing, even from here.

Annie appeared behind me, her arm weaving around mine. "Where did they _come_ from?" She asked, her gray eyes alight with worry.

"My question; how did ALL of them show up OUT here without us going into town in three weeks? We didn't lead them here." Meg joined us at the window, her eyes puzzled. "It's almost like someone led them here to wipe us out. But... there's no survivors in the area, is there? I mean, there's gotta be other surviving people, but I didn't think there was anymore in the city."

"Well, if someone did lead them here or at least set them on our trail, then they want us dead and out of here," Kristen muttered from behind us. She was sitting on mine and Annie's bed with Hailey, Emma, and Kara, shaking her head with her fists pressed to her temple.

"How are we going to get rid of all of them? There's gotta be at least a hundred!" Thomas was looking out the window as well. "And that's just in the front."

"I'll check the back. Kara, come with me." Ethan stood and walked out of the room, Kara following. Emma watched them, puzzled, and then shook her head and put her legs up where Kara had been.

"God, we could be stuck here for a while," Sierra was sitting with Sydney and Abbey on Hailey and Kristen's bed.

"Ya don't say?" Kristen made the face, from the old meme, and the room broke into uneasy laughter.

"Well, I have about 10 boxes' worth of MRE's under my bed.." I told everyone. "Go easy on them and they could last a month."

"That might be long enough to let them clear out," Abbey agreed. "I'm glad there's a small bathroom on the end of the hall, even if we almost never use it. It's going to start being used A LOT in the next couple of weeks."

"Again, ya don't say?" Kristen started shaking her head again.

"Hey, be nice," Hailey bumped her arm. "Do you remember Olivia, from our old school? How annoying she was? You could be trapped up here with her."

"Oh GOD no!" I turned and stared in horror at Hailey. "I'd throw myself to the WALKERS before living with her!"

"Who's Olivia?" Thomas immediately popped the question.

Annie answered, "A fat ass white girl who thought she was black, talked like she was black, and danced and sang about as well as a whale. She was really mean and uber annoying."

"Ah." Thomas let it drop.

"Did you just say uber?" Meg was cracking up.

"So what if I did? It's a word. Look it up." Annie answered defensively.

"So.. in case they get in... is the concrete room still accessible?" Kara came back into the room with Ethan.

"I checked the door last month," Sydney replied quickly, speaking of the garage that we had converted into a solid concrete room. A heavy steel door hung in the front of it, making the room a safe haven in case the fences ever failed. We had stored years' worth of food and water in the room, and could live comfortably for almost a decade if we made the supplies stretch. Long enough for whatever walkers were around to move away.

There was a couple of beds and multiple couches and books and battery-powered stuff inside too, to keep us pre-occupied while we waited. We had made it along with the fences when we first moved into the place three and a half years ago.

"Does it still open?" Annie asked, looking intently at her with her gray blue stare.

"Yea, easily," she answered, imitating opening a door that had a round wheel for a door. "The metal isn't rusted at all."

"That's funny... it's out in the weather," Meg looked up from watching the walkers. "Wouldn't it be, like, brown from rust?"

"Nope. It's stainless steel. That doesn't rust fast," I shook my head, sitting down below the window with my back against the wall. "Anyways, tomorrow I'm going out there with my machetes and I'm going to start stabbing heads through the fence. Any volunteers? It's okay if you don't want to go too; I can manage on my own. If they break through the chain link fence, I can scale the concrete wall easily. I've climbed higher, and I'd be back inside in seconds."

"Margaret, no." Emma shook her head. "You are NOT going out there just to kill yourself."

"No ma'am," Thomas agreed. "If anyone should go out there, it should be me and Ethan. We're stronger and.. well... _men_. We can fight better."

I snorted. "Says the one who lost the arm wrestle with me. Besides, girls are faster and more flexible. And I'm stronger than you because I constantly do fitness exercises, which, by the way, anyone's welcome to join me in that. You'd be ripped in a month."

"And have a guy's stomach and arms? No thanks." Hailey held up her hands.

I snorted and muttered, "Trashing my life style.. see how that works out when I'm not defending your ass," under my breath.

"Hey, easy!" Annie kicked my shin, and then sat down on the floor beside me. "You know weaker species pick on the stronger because of jealousy!"

"Heeeey!" Hailey pouted. "You're mean!"

Annie and I burst into laughter. "You've lived with her for how long now, and you just realized how mean she is?" I gasped, hitting the floor with my fist, my body racking with laughter. "She's a pitbull in a sweater and mascara!"

"Well, technically not anymore... there isn't any mascara!" Kristen said in her most obnoxious voice, making everyone burst into a round of laughter.

"Oh wow, okay. We need to check the room downstairs!" Kara wheezed, standing up. "Who's coming with me?"

Everyone stood up at once. "Whoa, okay guys... let's go?" Emma looked around, surprised.

"I'll stay up here with Annie, Meg, Ethan, and Thomas. Annie and I will cover you from this window, and you other guys, get your guns and go into the other rooms, and cover them from there in case walkers manage to get through." I administered orders quickly, reaching under my bed and pulling my crossbow out, then slid the window open and set the crossbow on the ledge.

"M'kay," Ethan replied, getting up and grabbing his gun off the wall, walking out of the room. Everyone quickly filtered out, and I watched as Kara and her posse crossed the line, everyone's guns ready in case the walkers made it through our primary defenses.

"Do you think we can clear all of these monsters out?" Annie crouched beside me and aimed her rifle at the gate, where the walkers were growling and slamming their hands on it.

"I don't know," I replied, shifting my position and looking briefly down at where Kara and her group had disappeared around the corner. "But I'll die trying."


	8. Chapter 7 Where's All The Food!

**Chapter 7**

"Where's all the food?!"

_Kara_

I walked around the end of the house, Emma right on my heels. I glanced at her as we walked up to the steel door.

"So.. what do you think of Ethan?" I asked, putting my hand up to the crank and starting to turn the wheel.

"Why?" Emma put her gun in her waistband and started to help me turn the wheel.

"Just wondering..." I grunted and started turning the wheel faster.

"He's a major flirt," Emma responded. "And he turned out to be really emotional. I think he's gay."

"Well that's nice." I heard the snap in the door and stopped turning. I pulled the handle and pushed _hard_ on the door, and with the sound of air whooshing in, the door was flung open. I stumbled in, my mind wheeling from how easily the door had opened up. How was it that I was able to shove it open on my own? Margaret couldn't even do it by herself when we first had installed the thing.

"Anyone got a.. never mind, the windows are still working on the wall." I walked cautiously into the room, looking around. The boxes looked like they had been stacked differently than when we had put them in here, and there _certainly _was fewer boxes.

Then the ball dropped in my mind. Someone had been sneaking into our house and taking our food.

"Guys, have any of you been... sneaking MRE's?" I turned slowly and looked at each of my friends' faces. I watched them closely, scanning for any signs of guilt, or remorse, _anything_ that would tell me we didn't have scavengers to deal with.

To my dismay, none of that was visible. Everyone looked surprised.

"Why?" Sierra demanded, looking around me. "Is there food missing?"

"Yes, and lots of it. Someone raided it or is sneaking in and taking a little more every time," I nodded, my mind beginning to numb with the horror of realizing that our safety, in case of a major attack, had been compromised.

"Wait, someone stole the food?!" Sydney pushed past me and flung herself in the room, her blue eyes sparking with anger and sadness. Abbey followed closely, her brown eyes full of anguish.

"No... NO!" Sydney screamed and flung a box full of MRE's at the wall. The card board gave away and the silver packets exploded across the room, sliding under the beds and couch and into other boxes. "**We spent all that time on COLLECTING this stuff and people STEAL IT?! WHAT THE HELL?!" **

"GEEZ Sydney! Calm down!" Sierra slipped up beside her and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. Abbey took her other, and they led her out of the room. Sydney was freaking out and yelling absurd things like, "WHY the FUCK would anyone steal our HARD EARNED **FOOD**!?" and even going as far as to try and punch Kristen, who grabbed the fist and pushed it back, then had Hailey take her other arm and force it down.

Emma was staring at the empty room, her eyes sad with remorse at the lost supplies. This now meant that if we were ever forced into here, we wouldn't be able to live as long as possibly starve before the walkers could clear out.

"What are we gonna do?" She whispered, looking at me and then at all of the empty space that had once held food. "Our main supply of food in case of an emergency has been cut in half..."

"I know, I know," I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, making her meet my eyes. "But we WILL catch who was doing this, and then we WILL get our MRE's back and kill the bastards."

"**WHAT THE **_**FUCK**_** DO YOU MEAN THE FOOD IS GONE!?" **Margaret was screaming when I came back into the house.

"It's just gone! I don't know how!" Sierra was trying to hold up against Margaret's fury, but she was too timid and nice to withstand a full-on verbal assault from Margaret. I grimaced as Margaret pinned her with an icy glare, the same one she used to give this girl Hope back in school, and Sierra flinched away as if she had been hit.

"HEY! Take it easy! Don't blame her for this you dumbass!" Annie grabbed Margaret and slapped her once across the face. There was a loud crack, and then Margaret was stumbling across the floor, a bright red handprint glaring out on her cheek.

"You need to pull yourself together! Does this look like a time for fighting?" Annie was seething through her teeth. I could just _see_ the steam coming out of her ears. Then she blinked, shook her head and added more softly, "Don't blame the ones who love you for this. They want to find and kill the assholes that did this just as much as you, but fighting against them is not the way to do it."

Margaret looked at the floor, her raging fit drawn to a screeching halt, and muttered, "Okay.."

"Oh, come here." Annie reached out and pulled her into a hug. I raised my eyebrows; this was the first time I had seen the two physically touch in that way in quite a while. Margaret was a naturally huggy person, but Annie was not and Margaret respected that. Margaret, naturally, wrapped her arms around Annie and buried her face in her shoulder, her eyes misting over with apparent frustration. She was a lot like Emma in that respect; whenever they were frustrated or angry, they would start crying.

Annie smoothed her hair and rested her head on Margaret's, and the two apparently tuned us out for a moment. When Margaret pulled away, her eyes red and leaking tears, Annie gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and offered her a smile. Margaret blinked back gratefully.

"So how about we get back upstairs?" Emma started towards the stairway, climbing it deftly.

"That sounds amazing to me. I'm not really comfortable down here with the carnage of walkers right outside our front gate." Sierra followed, leading Sydney, who was backed up by Abbey. I let Hailey and her sister go after, and then followed Emma, letting Annie and lastly Margaret come after me.

Upstairs a riot was starting.

"The food in the SAFE ROOM is GONE?" Ethan was already shouting.

"Hey, calm down!" Thomas was trying to grab one of his wildly waving arms, trying to stop his tyrannic yelling.

I felt my heart go out to the light brunette-haired boy. He had become really close to me over the time he had been with us, and I felt we were closer than he was to any of the others.

"Hey, are you.. okay?" I sat down beside him and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. He looked up at me, his gaze unreadable.

"No. Our fort is compromised. How am I supposed to be okay with that?" He quickly leapt to his feet and shouldered his way out of the room, grabbing one of Margaret's machetes.

"Hey, stop!" I followed him, Thomas hot on my heels, as he stormed down the stairs. I managed to grab him as he was leaving the front door, and Thomas then forced the machete away from him and set it down on the porch, dragging him back inside.

"You need to chill. We will be fine. Nothing is clearly getting in, all right?" Thomas was talking slowly to him, his brown eyes drilling into Ethan's gray ones.

"...okay..." Ethan looked away. "But we should still kill them when we get the chance."

"No duh." Margaret's familiar voice snorted behind me. She was standing on the second to last step, her clothes already changed from her earlier attire. "You yahoos need to get dressed for bed. It'll be getting dark soon and we don't want to be feeling our way around at night without a light source."

She leapt the rest of the way down and crossed the floor, clapping me lightly on the shoulder as she passed and whispering, "You watch yourself with the boys, m'kay?"

"Okay." I responded shortly; I didn't like that she was trying to due a duty that wasn't hers by telling me to be careful with the males of the group. But I listened to her anyways; she wasn't still alive and well without a reason.

"Okay, to the upstairs bedroom." Thomas grabbed Ethan's upper arm and started dragging the still fuming boy upstairs to get changed and ready for bed.

Once they'd gone, I crossed the wood floor into the kitchen, coming to stand by Margaret as she sliced an apple.

"Why do you do that?" I asked her, watching as she carefully pushed down on the knife, cutting the apple neatly in half. She didn't answer at first, just turned one of the halves face down and cut it as well, squirting juice out and onto her hand.

She mumbled, "Shit," and wiped it off on her jeans, then continued to slice the shiny fruit. Then she peeked out of the corner of her eye at me and muttered, "What do you mean?"

"Why do you act like my mother? Always telling me what to do and how to do it." I looked at her, my brow quickly muffling. I was now peeved; she knew what I was talking about. She just didn't wanna admit it.

"Because I care about you." The answer caught me off guard. "I don't want to have to watch you mess up your life. We are in the middle of an APOCALYPSE. We can't afford to be dealing with fraternizing. Besides," she looked up at me, "I don't trust Ethan."

"Okay.. um..." I looked down and away from her honest brown gaze. Embarrassment was now coursing through me; Margaret had presented very fine points, and I couldn't very well do anything but agree with her.

"It's okay." Margaret was now chuckling. She handed me half of the apple slices. "Eat that and then get to your room. And make sure you check for weapons before you go to bed."

_Hailey_

I heard Margaret moving around downstairs, and knew she was locking the doors and pulling the curtains on the windows. Outside, the daylight was slowly dwindling, and more walkers were starting to pour in as the dark was approaching. I looked at Annie, who was sitting on her bed staring at the wall. She nodded once, and then got up and left the room, and I listened to the thumping of her feet going down the stairs.

Everything was eerily quiet, and I could hear their voices through the floor.

"Are you coming upstairs now?" That was Annie's quiet, melodic voice.

"Yea, let's go." Margaret's deeper, gruffer vocal cords.

I shook my head and looked out of the window at the horde of monsters that were grappling with the fence as the sun quickly faded them in with the surrounding trees. My mind wandered away to how we had gotten here, what with Margaret showing up with her horses almost the second the outbreaks started and taking me back to her house, along with Sydney, Abbey, Kara, Annie, and my sister.

I wondered how I had gotten quite so lucky to ring up that one company that was still building despite the dangers that were quickly shrouding society. I wondered how we had been able to stay alive this long, surviving together and having each other to go to.

I wondered how I was still _here_, and not staggering around outside right now, one of _them._

Margaret and Annie appeared in the doorframe just then, and I smiled briefly.

"Hiya, Margaret. How ya doin'?"

"I'm good Hailey, thanks." I watched her weary, stiff movements as she laid down on the bed, and then scooted over to give Annie to lay down as well. I watched as the tough female warrior of the house became the most pitiful sight I'd seen in a while, stretching out on the small bed and trying to become comfortable but unable to, with half dead eyes and cuts and scrapes and scars criss-crossing her body. I watched as Annie rubbed her shoulder fondly, to which Margaret drug the back of her hand across her forearm, returning the affectionate gesture before rolling over on her other side, putting her back to us.

I looked at Kristen, who was already asleep behind me, and then stood and walked to the door, shutting and locking it. I put the key in the usual spot, my shoe by the door, and then returned to my bed. I laid down beside Kristen, pulling my share of the covers over me and then looking back once to my protector's bed. Margaret was already asleep, her sides rising slowly and then falling as she sighed and curled tighter into the sheets.

Annie offered me a smile, then looked over her shoulder once at Margaret and then went back to trying to sleep. Just about then, Margaret rolled over and grasped at something invisible, snaring Annie in her arms and pulling her closer.

Annie, used to Margaret's sleeping habits, unwound Margaret's arms from around her stomach and replaced herself with Margaret's stuffed dog Coax, to which Margaret's face immediately relaxed and she rolled back over, cuddling her dog and smiling in her sleep.

Annie looked at me once and chuckled, "Had the thing since she was six," and then snuggled back into her sheets, relaxing and drifting off into sleep just as the sun's last rays went out and the sky was dark.

I stayed up for a while, pondering what we were going to do about the food thieves. We could set a trap for them to get insnared in, but we'd have to kill or wait for the current walkers to wander off.

'_Or we could just leave,'_ a little voice in the back of my mind suggested. I physically shook my head, thinking, _"Impossible. We'd die the first night out there. This place is our safest bet."_

'_Or you could find other survivors and sleep on roofs and stuff. Anything's better than being TRAPPED here," _the voice continued to argue.

"_Okay, you're so smart, YOU decide what to do," _I snapped at the voice that was growing annoying, and it stopped.

"_I thought so," _I smirked, and rubbed my face deeper into the pillow, finally letting sleep over-come me.


	9. Chapter 8 Taking Back The Fence

**Chapter 8**

_Taking Back The Fence_

_Emma_

"Okay, people, listen up!"

Margaret was pacing around, looking at everyone intently. "We've been trapped inside our own house for almost a month now, and most of the walkers are gone. It's time we kill the remaining and go supply hunting."

"What?" Annie's response was almost immediate. "Do you really think that's a good idea? We shouldn't. What if one of us gets killed by the walkers?"

"We won't. We're just clearing out about twenty or thirty walkers. They're behind a chain link fence.. we'll be fine." Margaret was already picking up her machete. "If we're going to do it, we need to do it now."

I sighed and picked up a small hand pistol off of the weapon table, tucking it into my waistband of my jeans. I had become increasingly more comfortable around walkers since the first time I helped Hailey clear fences, and though I still didn't want to go into town, I would help take down the walkers from behind the fence. The rest of the group stood and grabbed weapons, then headed outside.

I watched as Kara came thumping down the stairs, finishing the touch on her hair and tucking a strand behind her ear. She was wearing her usual black tank top, with her hair pulled back into a golden braid and a small locket strung around her neck.

"Well, you certainly look pretty for the walkers," I joked. "I like the braid."

"Ya, I'm going to try and make it my regular style." She pulled a shotgun off of the table and turned towards me, clicking it into place and slinging it over her bronzed shoulder.

"Aren't you going to get a jacket? It's pretty cold out there.." I looked at her jeans and tank top attire and shook my head. "You're crazy!"

"Of course I'm getting a jacket!" Kara's voice was indignant as she managed to choose Margaret's gray Aeropostale jacket off of the coat hanger at the door and shrug it on.

"Ooh, she's gonna kill you," I teased, passing her and opening the large wooden front door for her.

"Thank you!" Kara practically skipped outside. I watched her upbeat gait, laughing and shaking my head. I gently shut the door behind me and then watched as she stopped and spun around.

"What are we even doing outside with weapons anyways?" Kara was watching Margaret heave the huge steel door open.

"Taking out the remaining walkers," I replied, grinning.

"Oh." She looked at the shotgun. "I guess I grabbed overkill."

"DURK A DURR!" I teased her again, taking up a jog and running past her. Kara followed, her eyes sparkling, and we joined up for the group. Margaret, who had a visible dark cloud over her head, looked at us once, mumbled something about pansies, and continued towards the fence, where walkers were growling and reaching through the fence.

"Get ready mother fuckers!" Margaret raised her machete, her tan arm muscles bulging, and stabbed the first walker square in the forehead through the fence. The female, who was wearing a name tag saying, "Hi! My name is Penny, how may I help you?" dropped to the ground like a load of bricks. I shook my head in disgust and then pulled my pistol out, firing over Margaret's shoulder and straight into the neighboring walker's eye.

Margaret jumped and then spun around, spluttering, "Be careful bitch!" and continuing to go down the line, stabbing heads through the fence and causing green blood to spurt everywhere. The others took up fire, and one by one the walkers were vanishing.

Once we had gone around the compound, we stopped and looked at Margaret.

"What are we standing here for? Let's get the trucks and start hauling these things to the burn pit to be burned."

The burn pit was a large patch of ground with rocks and a chain link fence strung up around it, and we used it to burn the bodies of walkers who were fried or killed around our perimeters.

Margaret, in addition to owning her rickety but trusty suburban, also was the proud owner of a one ton truck, and I had a three quarter ton Ford that also came in handy. In addition to that, Sierra had a half ton Ford that had replaced axels and an engine, so it was pretty much a three quarter ton with a half ton body. And them combined could haul about fifty walkers in one trip.

Margaret was already firing up her huge maroon Ford, throwing it in reverse and backing out of it's parked spot and then turning the wheel and turning it to pull up in front of the gates. Kristen ran and opened the chain link gate, and then Margaret pulled forward and turned sharply, pulling between the barbed wire and the chain link and stopping at the first group of bodies. Sierra was already running for her truck; she leapt in and turned the key, revving the engine.

Margaret leaned out the window and yelled, "DAMMIT SIERRA, IF YOU DRAW MORE WALKERS HERE THEN I'LL FEED YOU TO THEM PERSONALLY!"

Everyone started laughing; we knew by now that Margaret's threats, like Annie's, were hollow and just her way of saying "Quit" or "Careful".

"Com'mon! Let's help load bodies!" Kara continued skipping past me, her brown paddock boots sinking into the soft pine-needle covered forest floor.

I followed closely, my mind buzzing. What if walkers started re-appearing? The barbed wire and the electric fence were down, so that meant that anything could get in and get after us. I ran my hand across the black butt of the pistol that was tucked into my belt loop in re-assurance, and joined Kara, who was bending down the grab a walker.

Margaret hopped out of the truck and ran to us, grabbing the walker that I had managed to pull up by the shirt, and heaving it up and into the bed of the truck. She never failed to astonish me at how _strong_ she was! The boys came over and started helping as well, and before five minutes was up, 17 of the limp bodies were stacked in the bed.

"Dang, Thomas, I think I'm going to have to start doing pushups to keep with Margaret!" Ethan joked, grabbing a child's body and throwing it on top of the pile. I winced when the neck snapped and the head bounced off, rolling down and out of the truck. Blood started running down the pile of bodies, the green-brown slimy syrup coating everything and eventually pooling at the bottom of the truck bed.

Margaret made a face and grumbled, "Just washed this thing not too long ago," and then tossed a man's body on top of everything. The truck was full after 21 bodies, and Sierra pulled in behind to take over.

"You two and boys, come with me." Margaret was climbing back into the driver's seat. Kara, Ethan and I sat in the back while Thomas joined her up front. Margaret checked the rear view mirror once to make sure nothing in the pile was moving, and then pulled away and took a short jeep trail off into the woods.

The truck, having huge shocks, bounced roughly across the dirt path, and thirty seconds later we pulled up to the burn pit. It was far enough away that walkers that were attracted wouldn't find or go right past the house, and we had rigged up a special fence on the inside so that walkers could go through the gate, and climb over the second fence, and then get trapped. When they tried to cross back over, the fence was slanted, so the first trip was easy, but coming back was almost impossible unless they were seven feet tall or the walkers were limber and part gymnast.

Margaret pulled into the gates and closed it behind us, assuring that we couldn't get ambushed while we were unloading the truck and also from letting any still-alive walkers escape and then bring friends later. The thought made my fingers twitch back over my gun's handle and twiddle there for a moment, nervously, dancing around and feeling the grooves on the carved wooden handle cover.

Margaret hooked the first body with her hand and yanked it, pulling it out from under the rest of the walkers. The pile started to tumble out, and with a yelp like a startled puppy Margaret started to scramble back and fell. I moan came from inside the pile, and one of the walkers, one who had been an old man, stood and staggered towards Margaret. She scrambled back, still on the ground, as the walker advanced and started to drop to it's knees, it's hands reaching hungrily towards her leg.

**POW! **

A green blood spurt shot out of the other side of the creature's head, and it dropped backwards, dead. Blood was leaking from the bullet wound, and Margaret was looking from it to me incredulously.

That's when I realized my right hand was trembling. And holding the pistol.

I hadn't even registered the fact that I had drawn the gun, aimed, _and _fired and hit the target _dead on._

"E-Emma..?" Margaret was climbing to her feet. She shook her head and grinned, "Girl, you are one _hell _of a shot!" Then she kicked the now dead walker and growled, "That's what you get, bastard."

She hauled the body up and over the fence and dropped it in the pile of ashes, watching as a chalky gray cloud rose up from the ground around the body. Then Thomas and Ethan started helping throw the bodies in, and they finished the job quickly.

About two minutes after I fired the gun, Sierra's truck came bouncing towards us. Kara opened the gate, and the white truck pulled in beside Margaret's. Hailey leapt out, gun ready, and said, "We heard shots. What's wrong?"

"A walker was still alive, but Emma cleaned it up." Margaret tossed the answer over her shoulder. Kara and I looked at each other and then snorted; she was never going to admit that she was almost bitten.

"Ya, _cleaned up_," Ethan joked, and Margaret turned an icy glare on him.

"Shut your trap. Nothing happened." She looked back at Sierra's truck. "Is that the rest of the bodies?"

Kristen climbed out of the truck and nodded. "Yea, we got them all."

"Good. Start throwing." She grabbed the first one and slung it into the pit. Then she told us, "Get the trucks out of here," and pulled a can of lighter fluid and some matches out of her truck console. I stepped up and got in the truck, waiting for the others to get in. I looked in the rear view mirror and frowned when Ethan sat in the middle of the backseat by Kara instead of his side, then shook my head and backed out of the chain link fence's gate.

Margaret leaned over the fence and dumped lighter fluid all over the bodies, then lit and tossed a couple matches and turned to run.

The fire was spectacular. The fire started with a loud boom, and the flames leaped up as tall and the surrounding treetops. Margaret managed to scramble out of reach, and open the gate before running to the truck and opening my door.

Instead of asking me to move, Margaret just climbed in and sat in my _lap. _

"...the crap woman?" I looked at her as she pushed my feet out of the way and positioned them on the pedals.

"I don't feel like waiting out in the open while you move around and get in the back. Dangerous." She started to push down on the gas pedal, shifting the gears, and I realized with a twinge, rather uncomfortably, that I could feel the muscles in her legs when she moved them.

"Whoa Margaret! Switching gears?" Thomas joked, looking at us.

"Of course!" Kara grinned from the backseat. "She's always secretly had a thing for girls!"

"What are you talking about? She's mine!" I wrapped my arms around her waist, and in return, got the following string of words.

"Fucking mother fuck get the fuck off of me do I LOOK like I roll that way don't answer that I hate all of you you bunch of faggots go die in a hole with your two dollar whores!"

"Whoa. Chill the fuck out." Ethan was staring at Margaret in the mirror.

"YOU chill the fuck out!" She replied hotly. "I will when I'm not called gay anymore."

"Rowr," I grinned, looked back at Kara and winked, then slid my hands back around her waist and leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Feisty."

She slammed her foot on the break and everyone flew forward.

"OUT!" She opened the door for me. I pulled myself out from under her and hopped into the backseat, laughing and high-fiving Kara. We had made it a game to see who could freak her out the most. So far, Kara was winning, but I had just almost caught up with her with this.

At the gates, everyone was waiting for us. Meg shut the gate after we pulled through, and then hopped onto the side of the truck. Margaret rolled the window down for her to hang onto, and she looked inside the cab and asked, "Do you think the people who raided our food will come back tonight?"

"Who knows," Margaret shrugged. "But I'm pulling an all-nighter to wait for them and see." She nodded at the sky. "See? It's only four in the afternoon and it's already getting dark. Winter months are a pain. It'll be dark at five, and we had better be in bed and still by then."

"I agree completely," Ethan randomly stated beside me.

"Not helping your case, dude." Kara slapped his shoulder gently. He laughed and started tickling her sides, only to stop when Margaret looked back sharply and growled, "Hands off her. Now."

"Okay, okay!" Ethan held his hands up. "I wasn't-"

"Arguing will only make you a bigger douche," Margaret cut him off, and turned the wheel to park the car, getting out and starting to walk back to the house. I could literally feel the cold coming off of her back.

I looked at Kara and shrugged, then jumped out of the truck and ran after her. The entire group gathered in the living room and ate dinner, and then people started to disperse into their little subgroups, most heading upstairs. I stood with Kara a moment until she started up the stairs after Ethan, and then was left alone. Margaret was laying sideways on the couch, Annie beside her, with her head barely touching Annie's leg. Annie was petting her hair softly, and as I watched, started tracing her facial features.

I started up the stairs. It looked like Annie and Margaret were getting ready for a big talk, and I wasn't welcome there. They were only that... they only made that much physical contact when Annie was really upset or Margaret was distraught.

I walked past the room were Kristen, Hailey, and Meg were talking, and joined Kara and the boys in my bedroom, settling easily into the conversation.

"Hey, you awake?" I rolled over and met the eyes of Margaret. She was perched on the edge of the bed, leaning over me and staring intently at my eyes with her own brown ones.

"I am now." I groaned and sat up. "What time is it?"

"Almost one in the morning. Will you... um... keep watch with me? Annie's sound asleep and I don't want to wake her." Margaret's brown eyes were persuading and almost apologetic. How could anyone say no to that?

"Of course." I swung my legs out over the edge of the bed and stood.

She murmured, almost to herself, "Thanks," and then led me out of my room and to hers. She had laid down a small bed under the window, using a foam lining and then a blanket as padding from the wood floor, and then had another blanket and Coax subbing in for a pillow.

"I made that.. for you.. in case you got tired and wanted to lay down." She waved a hand at it and the sat down on the left side of the bed. I joined her on the right, and she pulled her crossbow out and laid it on the window sill, aiming at the gate, the only way in.

We sat in silence for several minutes, just listening to the twins' and Annie's slow, gentle breaths, watching for motion around the gate. Then Margaret asked, not moving her eyes, "What do you think of Ethan?"

"Girl, I've already been asked that!" I laughed, looking down at the floor. When Margaret looked at me, her face serious, I quit laughing and 'sobered up'. "Why?"

"Because I think he's too comfortable with Kara," Margaret stated flatly. "I don't like it. I don't like how he's constantly right there beside her, always touching and hugging."

"It's just Ethan.." I tried to defend him, but deep down I knew she was right; it was wrong.

"I'm not going to say anything, for Kara's sake. I think she really likes him."

"Would you rather her be with the wrong guy and fine with you, or her not with that guy and miffed at you?" Margaret had set the crossbow down and was turned towards me, her chocolate gaze boring into my own.

"Uh.. the second one..?" I responded tentatively; she was so focused, so worried, the mixed emotions swirling through those story-book eyes, that it hurt me. I reached forward and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a hug. She leaned into it gratefully, her own arms slipping around me and squeezing back, her face quickly nuzzling into my neck.

"Thanks.." she muttered, her voice slightly muffled.

"You're welcome. You can talk to me anytime." I smoothed her hair with one hand.

"That's not what I meant." Her statement startled me.

"Then what did you mean?" I asked, my hand freezing over her head.

"I meant.. thanks.. for saving me earlier. That.. that meant a lot. Thank you." Margaret pulled away and nodded, regaining her posture.

"Oh, for that?" I laughed. "Anytime, girly. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to lay down for a while."


	10. Chapter 9 Forced From Home

**Chapter 9**

Forced From Home

_Margaret_

I awoke in a different spot then where I had drifted off after sitting watch at the window. I remembered talking with Emma, and then her laying down for a while on the make-shift bed, and then her later leaving for her own bed. The last thing I _could_ remember was my eyelids drifting shut.

Now I was lying in a bed, my eyes shut, my breathing slow. Something nearby was weighing the bed down, and I opened my eyes to see Annie laying beside me, staring at the ceiling. She saw me move and her gray eyes twitched towards me; then she smiled and sat up.

"I woke up about three and saw you sitting in front of the window, your head resting on the sill and the crossbow in your lap. I managed to get you to crawl to the bed and climb in, and then you were out." She looked down and blushed. "You tried to cuddle me... I gave you Coax."

I felt a blush creep onto my own cheeks. "I did? Oh my god, I am _so _sorry! I'm used to sleeping with a pillow or Coax, as you can tell..." I looked away in embarrassment. I did _stupid_ things when I was asleep.

"Yep, I can. The second you touched Coax, your face relaxed and you looked... happy. A sight I haven't seen in a while," she added, and started to stand. Then she turned and danced her fingers across my shoulder. "Com'mon, sleepyhead, time to get up and start clearing fences."

"Are we the only ones up?" I asked the brunette, sitting up and swinging my tanned legs over the edge of the bed.

"Yea. Hailey and Kristen are obviously still asleep." Annie jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the two sleeping sisters, who were positioned head to foot, facing away from each other. I snorted and shook my head; the twins wouldn't wake up to the sound of voices at all. You either had an alarm set or they would need shaking to be brought to life.

Annie and I quickly changed into our working clothes, putting on extra layers for the cold. Her outfit consisted of an old sweatshirt I gave her over a plain red T-shirt, and jeans with paddock boots. She also wore a scarf and pulled on a beanie. I didn't blame her; it was cold outside, especially in the mornings.

My outfit was an Aeropostale shirt, a sweatshirt that Annie had given me, my favorite pair of jeans, and my own pair of paddock boots (hand downs from Annie, who had the same size foot I have now at age eight). I didn't don on a scarf or beanie; I liked to be able to move my neck and hear perfectly.

I grabbed my crossbow off of the floor, not bothering to look out the window, and started to leave the room, heading for the stairs. I was about halfway down, Annie waiting at the top, when I noticed that the front door was open, about the same second that a walker sat up from behind the couch and turned to look at me, it's face curling into a snarl.

I backpedaled up the stairs as it staggered towards me, and made it to the top just as the creature reached me. I stared down at it as it reached for me, frustrated that it couldn't get to me.

Annie was staring speechless over my shoulder. "How did... they..?" She backed away, her eyes misting over with disbelief. I shook my head, rage filling my body, and slammed the door that covered the stairwell.

"Go wake the others." I seethed through my teeth at her, and then walked quickly to my room, looking out of the window at the gate. Sure enough, it was wrenched open, and the wall spray painted with the words "FUCK YOU". What looked like the leftovers of a deer carcass was strewn across the front lawn, and 20 or thirty walkers were stumbling around.

I could hear the ones downstairs making racket, and shook my head again. My body began to tremble as I realized; we were truly trapped here without any way of leaving. All of our weapons except the sidearms, a crossbow, and my machetes were up here, and only two of those choices were the smart thing to do. Gun shots would bring more walkers into the area.

I turned and strode to the Chamberlain's bed, shaking awake Hailey and Kristen.

"Wake up!" I hissed. "Someone let walkers into our home!"

They were up in an instant, guns teleported out of no where and faces ready.

"How did they manage that?" Hailey was looking out of the window. She opened it and aimed the gun, shooting one of the walkers that was staggering around. It dropped with a distant thud, and the walkers around it stumbled closer to see if it was a recent kill that was worth eating.

"Don't do that!" Kristen hissed and snatched the gun away. "You're wasting bullets! How are you supposed to get anywhere doing that?"

"Calm down! That's one walker we don't have to deal with," I tried to soothe their nerves. "Let's just get the group together and talk it out."

"Easy for you to say," Kristen retorted. "You're not the one that was woken up to this news."

"No, I'm just the one that was almost was eaten alive in her own home!" I snapped back, leading them out of my room.

I took them into the other room, Emma's and Kara's, and saw that all of my other family was already in there, discussing what to do.

"Let's just make Margaret mad and turn her loose," Ethan joked, looking at me and grinning. My scathing look burned away the grin almost instantly.

"So... any other ideas on how to get rid of all the walkers?" Ethan picked back up awkwardly, stumbling across his words. Emma shoved her hands in her pockets and shrugged, while Thomas picked up a whistling tune and looked out the window absent-mindedly.

"I can go at it with my machetes." The suggestion was out of my mouth before I could really think about it.

"Margaret, no," Annie's response was instantaneous. "You are not going against fifty or so walkers by yourself."

"Why not? If I get killed I'll be the only fatality. No one else to get bitten or eaten," I argued, moving towards the door to fetch my silver duo weapons.

"I said, no." Annie grabbed my arm. "Even if no one else cares, I am NOT letting you do that."

"I second that motion," Emma grabbed my other arm.

"Thirds. There is no way you'd come out alive and unscathed," Sierra shook her head.

"Down, hero, down. I know you want to be group leader and be all strong, but stay here," Ethan tried again to joke, but his words were met with fury.

"You think I'm playing _hero_?" I looked at him angrily, chewing on my words. "You think _I_ think this is some kind of _game_? How _dare you?" _

"Uhm.. Margaret, don't start this..." Kristen stepped forward. "This is not the way to do it."

"Get off of me!" I just spat at Annie and Kara, hate and anger swirling through my mind. I wanted to _kill. Badly._ I wrenched my arms free from my friends' hold, and stormed out of the room. I retrieved my machetes and started towards the staircase.

"Margaret, NO!" Annie ran forward and grabbed one of the machetes away from me. "You can't do this!"

"Watch me!" I spat back, grabbing for the stolen weapon. She held it above my head, and I growled in anger, unable to reach it due to my being 5'1'' and her standing at 5'10''.

"Don't do this," she repeated, and for the first time I fully looked at her face. Her gray eyes bore into me, making me shrink inside of myself. All of my anger was quenched with guilt, and my ferocious stance shriveled into cowering in her shadow.

She wordlessly handed me my weapon back, and nodded towards our room. I took the machetes back to the room and set them down, then returned to Kara and Emma's room.

"Thanks for riling her up," Kara was growling at Ethan.

"Don't get mad! It worked, didn't it? She was gonna kill the walkers!" Ethan held his hands up in defense.

"Can it shithead," I snarled at the boy. The group all blinked, startled, and then listened as I went on; "We need to pick off what we can from upstairs and then storm the downstairs with close range guns and hand held weapons."

"Sounds like a plan, but, uh, ALL THE WEAPONS ARE DOWNSTAIRS." Abbey was becoming exasperated with the arguing.

"Hey, take it easy!" Sydney was immediately on the case. "Margaret's doing the best she can to figure this out."

"Maybe I should hand it over to Miss 4.9 GPA," I looked at Kara. "What do you think?"

"Your plan sounds good to me," she nodded. "Let's do it."

I grabbed Annie's wrist at once, dragging her with me to our room again. I pulled my long-range sniper gun out from under the bed, and opened the window.

"Brace me," I said over my shoulder, and I felt Annie come up behind me and put her hands on my shoulders. Then I aimed the gun down at the multitude of walkers that were shuffling in circles on our lawn, and shot at the first one.

It went down quickly. I reloaded and took out two more with a lucky shot. Annie patted me on the shoulder.

"Good job!" She praised as I took out another one. I chuckled.

"You have no idea how much that phrase means to me." I shot yet another.

Once I had cleared the front yard, I returned to Emma's room, and seconds later the others joined me, all cocking their guns and slinging them over their shoulders.

"We did it!" Ethan looked at me expectantly. "Now what?"

"To the downstairs," I replied, setting the rifle down on the floor. I retrieved my machetes and started towards the stairs, opening the door and looking down. All the walkers had vanished. An uneasy feeling built in my stomach; where did they all go?

I made sure Annie and Kara had backed up a little and then started down the stairs. I hit the floor, and the walkers who had spread out across the living room, turned and started to shuffle towards me. I heard the others thundering down the stairs, and seconds later gunshots sounded in my ear, and the nasty creatures started dropping to the ground. I attacked the closest walkers, my machetes flashing out and decapitating every creature in sight. A hand landed on my shoulder, rough, clumsy, and grabbing. I snarled and whipped around to confront the hand's owner.

_Kara_

Margaret fought tooth and nail against our home invaders, slashing and stabbing and cutting every inch of flesh in sight. She be-headed a particularly ugly female walker, one who's face was half melted off, and then whipped around as another grabbed her shoulder and stabbed it straight in the forehead.

She pulled the machete back out, kicked the walker in the chest and sent it down to the floor, where it wouldn't move again, and turned back to continue her bloody melee on the undead that were crowding our living room.

"Guys, barricade that back door!" She shouted over her shoulder, and I looked at Ethan and nodded, then we began shooting walkers down that were entering from the back, and slammed the door shut, locking and bolting it and then returning to the living room. We finally killed all of the ones inside the house, and then ran outside and shut the gate, finishing off the remaining five or so inside the fence.

"We did it!" I grinned triumphantly, high-fiving Ethan. I stopped when I saw Margaret glaring at me, green blood running down her arms and dripping off of her machetes and onto the ground. Her dark eyebrows were pursed in a tight pinch, and the anger set into her face. Her muscles bulged from under her white tank top, and she was soaking in sweat, her tank top beginning to turn clear.

"Why are you wearing a wife beater again?" Ethan did the dumb thing by following my gaze to Margaret and then challenging her. "You look like white trash."

"I'm wearing it because fuck you," she snarled back, her voice poisonous.

"Hey, be nice," Annie was on her in an instant, leading her away with a look at Ethan and I over her shoulder.

Just then a truck crashed through the front of our gates, tearing up the wires and knocking the metal door off of it's hinges. The semi-ton slid to a stop, and a group of eight men jumped out, shooting at the sky and yelling, "Drop the weapons! Hands where we can see them!"

I complied and dropped my handgun, making sure the one tucked into the back of my pants was covered by my shirt and jacket. One of the men ran off into the house, and came back, carrying some of Margaret's crackers.

"Hey, asshole, those are mine-" Margaret stepped forward, still holding her machetes, but she jumped back and dropped them when the biggest and apparent leader of the group shot and literally skinned her scalp. The pain stopped her dead, and she clutched where the flesh had been peeled back. Her head started spraying blood, running down her jaw and dripping onto her white shirt.

She started shaking, her eyes clouding over, and I realized with horror she had just submitted for the first time to someone other than Annie since we were in middle school. It had taken a bullet to the head and a lot of blood pouring from her own wounds, but it made her realize there was stronger people out there.

She turned and tucked her head into Annie's shoulder, who in turn smoothed her hair and comforted her, ignoring the red tide that quickly started running down her front.

"Hey, Bruce, check it out. Girls," one of the guys was licking his lips and laughing. "We could have some fun."

"We don't have time to fuck around," the one named Bruce responded. "Get them gone before the walkers show up."

"Alright. Get in your vehicles peacefully and no one gets hurt," the other guy yelled, making a couple of his buddies help him herd us to the vehicles.

Margaret was numb by now, gripping Annie's hand, her eyes distant and scared. She jumped when I put my hand on her shoulder, her eyes unable to recognize me. The blood ran in her eyes and she shook her head, spraying everyone within five feet.

"Watch it, dumb bitch," one of the other guys muttered, shoving her. She stumbled and almost fell, except Annie stopped her from going down and stood her back on her feet, helping her to start walking again. Annie's worried expression and constant gaze on Margaret told me everything I needed to know; Margaret had never been like this before.

Ethan's hand slipped around mine and gripped it, and he looked at me, murmuring, "It's alright, I won't let them hurt us."

I nodded, gripping his hand back, and waited as Emma started the cars, and then people started filing into the vehicles. Emma got into her truck along with Meg, Sierra hers with Sydney and Abbey, the twins their car, Ethan, Thomas and I into Margaret's truck, and Margaret and Annie (well, Annie guiding Margaret into the passenger's seat) got into the suburban.

Meg pulled a gun out and whipped around, planting a bullet in one of our escort's heads, then shot another one.

Then she dropped, blood flooding out of the holes on either side of her head, as Bruce shot her dead.

"NO!" Emma gasped, and I turned to Ethan, unable to take it.

"Get in the car." Bruce shot her again in the head for emphasis. "Or you'll end up like your friend here."

I jumped into the backseat of the truck with Thomas, while Ethan climbed into the driver's seat.

Everyone's vehicles roared to life, and then we were peeling out, driving out of the gate and down the road, away from the only home we'd ever had since this Hell had started.

_Annie_

I drove, constantly switching my gaze between the road and Margaret. She was sitting hunched over, her hand still clutching mine, confusion and hate swirling in her eyes. I had seen the blank look she had given Kara, the one where she hadn't recognized her, and it scared me. I ran the pad of my thumb over the back of her hand a couple times, and then squeezed it, and asked, "Um.. Magret, are you okay?"

She looked at me, and the amount of sorrow that was in her suddenly clear brown depths shattered my heart. "How could..." she started off hoarsely, then began again. "How could they beat me? Just like that? It's my job to give my life to save you, and Meg did better.." I tear rolled down her eye. "And now she's gone because of me. If I had been the one to fight, she'd still be okay.." Tears started running.

"It's okay.. it's okay.. you tried.." I squeezed her hand again, glancing briefly at the odd mixture of blood, sweat, and tears that was running down her cheek. "She died fighting like a true warrior. That's an honorable death. And she wasn't torn apart by walkers or anything. That's the way to go." I felt sorrow tugging at my own heart, but I pushed it away. I had to be strong now, for Margaret. Or else she might sink into another depression and I wouldn't ever see the real her again.

"Hey, do you hear me?" I squeezed her hand _again_. Margaret looked at me, nodding slowly, and then tore her hand out of mine and huddled in the farthest corner of her seat. She curled her knees to her chest, blood dripping and running down onto them. Her face was slowly growing paler and paler as the blood inside her dwindled down to less and less.

I watched the blood pool below her in the seat, and stain the upholstery, so that the dark blue carpet turned almost black. I shook my head and turned my gaze back on the road, watching as the truck containing Sierra, Sydney, and Abbey swerved slightly off the road. I was puzzled until I saw a walker fly up and over her car, telling me that there was a herd ahead.

I flew through them, using the suburban as a battering ram and knocking the stupid creatures aside with each lurch of the tires. Margaret didn't stir beside me, just cowered even lower in her seat and tried not to watch the bloody carnage. I spun the wheel to keep from fishtailing across the path, and cleared the remaining group of walkers, continuing to follow the other vehicle's tail lights.

Sierra's car was in front of me, and as I watched them again there was a slight bump and then a swerve.

I looked quickly at Margaret and told her, "Hang on!" then mimicked Sierra's moves, cutting the wheels right after the bump. The tail of the suburban slammed into another crowd of walkers as it slung to the side, and then the tires got grip and we were tearing away. Margaret continued to huddle in the corner, unaware to all of her surroundings.

I followed the lead car well into the countryside, until we came across another farm, the main gates torn down and cast aside. I shook my head; walkers destroyed everything.

Emma's truck slowed to a stop in front of the building, it's windows boarded up with thick, blood-stained plywood, and the other vehicles started lining up beside her. I parked the suburban beside Sierra's truck and hopped out, brushing my hand across my pistol in reassurance and then crossing the front to Margaret's side.

I pulled open the door. "Com'mon Phyllis, we gotta go." I used her old nickname from when we were freshmen. She looked up slowly, light sparking briefly in her miserable depths, and then she crawled in slow motion out of the car and grabbed at her gun, pulling it out and throwing back the catch, ensuring that whatever she shot at was to be hit with a bullet.

I nodded once at her and then turned and led her over to the rest of the group. She followed me blindly, stumbling a couple times, and shaking her head before continuing on. I didn't blame her; she had been the closest to Meg, and I felt terrible for both of them.

"Hey, are you feeling better?" Kara looked at her with hope, but Margaret's hazy, selective vision just brushed over her and then back to the ground. She moved closer to me, clearly uncomfortable, and I took her hand again, giving it a gentle squeeze. Her hand clamped down on mine, and I could feel her trembling through it.

"I don't think so," I voiced for her, shaking my head sadly and leading her away from the group a little. I bent down a little so that we were eye level and told her, "I need to talk with the others. Can you watch for walkers?"

Margaret nodded and turned away from me, heading towards her big truck. She slowly pulled herself into the bed and then stood, watching the road.

I nodded, almost to myself, and then turned away and joined the others.

"Is she going to be okay?" Emma was watching her.

"She'll pull out of it. She was like this for a couple of days after Diamond died, remember?" Everyone from the original group winced; when Margaret's well known and beloved Arabian horse passed at the old age of 31, she was devastated. She wandered around school for a whole week, shutting everyone out and wandering blindly, forgetting classes, not to mention school work. She flunked out of both of her advanced classes and sank her GPA, and was rocketed down to 97th in the class of 2016.

"So do we want to storm the house?" Sierra nodded at the two story house that was standing, door ajar, in front of us.

"Yes, let's. We can shelter in there for the night," Kristen was nodding enthusiastically. "Then we can move on tomorrow morning."

"And find food, hopefully," Hailey muttered, kicking the ground and sending a stone rolling away.

"Oh, give it up already. We aren't going to be eating for a while." Ethan growled at her. "It's a good thing Margaret always kept several cases of water in the back of that damn suburban."

"Stop it," Kara looked up at him and chastised his attitude. "We need to work together, not apart."

"Then let's go in," Ethan muttered back, frustrated. Kara nodded. "Since Margaret can't do front line, I will." She pulled the handgun out of the back of her waist band and started towards the house, the group in tow. I whistled once at Margaret, and her head snapped around. She hopped down and wandered towards me, her gun still clutched in both hands, almost comically. She sucked up to my side, her hand finding mine yet again, and I tugged her into a run after the group into a run.

We caught up and entered to building nervously, shooting a couple of suspicious bodies that were sprawled on the ground.

"Do you think it's clear?" Emma was holding her gun up, shaking in fear. I didn't blame her either; she wasn't one to leave the house. Ever.

"Hailey, Kristen, you two start towards the kitchen." Kara waved her gun in the direction she was talking about. "Annie, you and..." Kara's eyes flicked over the small, frail looking brunette practically clinging to me, "Margaret go through that door to the living room. See what's in there. Sydney and Abbey, take the hall with the two doors. Emma, the boys, and I are going upstairs."

She nodded to Emma, and then Thomas and Ethan sucked up behind them, and they headed up the stairs. I looked down at Margaret almost piteously; she was staring with huge, frightened eyes around at the big house.

"Let's go this way," I persuaded her, gently giving her a push in the right direction. We walked through the corridor and into the living room. I kept my gun up, ready to shoot anything coming in our direction, and half pushed Margaret along. She stumbled and regained her footing, holding her gun loosely in her hands. I heard a moan and a walker stood from behind the couch, a woman; one shot and it was dead. Another, a man, probably the husband of the woman, came from the same area. I shot it as well.

Margaret fired a split second after I did, grazing it's shoulders and making it fall at an angle. She looked up and smiled at me, a bit like a child would do to their mother after accomplishing a small goal, and I smiled back, nodding. The smile was only skin deep, however. Did she have amnesia? Had she forgotten how literally badass she was? How many walkers she killed with ease?

Maybe the shot to the head gave her a concussion. Maybe she had lost too much blood from the shot. Maybe she just needed sleep. I prayed that any of these were true, and that she hadn't been shocked to the point of actually loosing her memory.

A shot from upstairs confirmed that Kara and her crew had found a walker. Another two rang out and dull thumps confirmed that bodies were hitting the floor. I continued to search the rest of the living room, behind all of the furniture and inside the large wardrobe. None of the furnishings concealed walkers. Margaret had let go of me and wandered across the room, stopping at a small bedside table. She was holding a small picture frame, staring at it as if she knew the people.

I crossed back to where she was and looked over her shoulder. The faces were unfamiliar to me, but she was staring intently as if she recognized them. There was a man and a woman, and their three children all crowded into the portrait, laughing and smiling at the beach as the sandy waves lapped at their feet.

"Do you know them?" I asked softly, indicating to the picture.

She shook her head. "No... but they were a family. Living, breathing, loving family. And it was torn apart, just like that. The parents were too mauled to be recognizable. You know, the ones you shot?"

I winced and smiled at the same time. I smiled because Margaret seemed to be waking up from her little shock ordeal. I winced because she spat out, 'The ones you shot' like it was poison.

"Ya, I know. The gunshots upstairs must've been the children," I murmured quietly, taking the picture from her and setting it down on the table. "Com'mon, let's get back into the foyer. Kara and the others are coming downstairs." It was true. Footsteps were thumping quickly down towards us.

We met everyone at the base of the stairs.

"Did you find children?" I asked as soon as Kara came within talking distance.

"Yeah," she dipped her head sadly. "One boy and two little girls. They were mauled pretty badly. I couldn't even recognize the gender differences except for the clothes."

"We shot the parents." I grimaced at the sound of that phrase. Margaret, who had taken my hand again, gave it a light squeeze, looking up at me with concern. It was almost funny how, considering how she was just ten minutes ago, she was trying to offer me comfort now. I was just like her to try and be tough and strong for me, no matter what she's dealing with.

"We didn't find anything. The windows are all boarded up down that hall and in the rooms," Sydney pointed to where she came from.

"Same with the kitchen. We checked everything, but nothing was there. There is some canned food still in the cabinets, along with a can opener and some bowls. We scored dinner for the next few nights if we make it stretch." Kristen relayed her information.

"Everything is clear upstairs, now." Ethan was, as usual, trying to take charge. Kara and Margaret both shot him a dirty look before Emma asked, "What are we going to do with the family?"

Margaret chewed her lip for a moment before saying slowly, "Well.. the best thing to do is bury them, but that would take a while, and since it's winter, daylight is limited, so we should burn them. I have lighter fluid and matches in the back of the truck, and it wouldn't take but a few minutes. These bodies'll burn fast."

She was purposely saying 'bodies' to take the person out of them. They no longer were people; they were mindless killing machines bent on ripping us apart and eating us.

She left us and went into the living room, returning a moment later with the man slung over her shoulder. Kara nodded to her and retrieved the woman, and the boys turned and went upstairs to get the children. We all moved outside to burn the bodies, carrying them to the edge of the property and setting them in a pile, all sitting up and supporting each other.

Margaret jogged and grabbed the fire starting tools, then dumped lighter fluid on the bodies and lit a match, tossing it onto the nearest body. It burst into flames, and quickly spread to the other bodies, searing them into black skin sacks immediately. She flinched back from the horrid sight of the skin melting off and burning in fatty lumps on the ground.

She turned and looked at the Chamberlains. "Watch it and keep the fire from spreading. Yell if anything comes out of the woods." Then she motioned for me to follow and returned into the house, Kara, Emma, Sydney and Abbey following.

She started waving her arms around once we got inside. "We want to barricade these windows. Plywood boards aren't going to be enough if a horde comes through. Push furniture up behind it everywhere you can and try to use it as support." She pulled me over to the wardrobe, and we pushed it across the floor, putting it in front of the biggest window.

The others followed suite, moving the couch and chairs in front of the other windows and quickly clearing floor space. The fire outside reached our noses, making me gag slightly. Margaret looked up and asked, "Are you okay?" Concern laced her voice. I nodded back, touched that she would care about something as little as a cough from smoke inhalation, and then moved into the kitchen, dragging chairs around to board the windows above the sink.

Margaret came in and helped, throwing the chairs on each other deftly, her tan biceps flexing and straining as she threw the obviously heavy chairs up on top of each other, each a good foot or two above her head.

"Thanks, girl," I patted her quickly on the shoulder and then withdrew my hand, looking around the kitchen. The house appeared to have no back door, which was strange, but hey, I wasn't going to complain. That meant only one door to defend. Margaret was thinking otherwise, though.

"Only one way out." She shook her head. "We'll have to barricade that staircase before we go to sleep."

I nodded, feeling sheepish for thinking the opposite, and then walked back out into the foyer again, unsure of where to go next.

"How 'bout we set up the bedrooms downstairs?" Margaret was peering down the hallway.

"Sydney and Abbey have already got that covered," I told her, listening for the soft noise of furniture being drug across carpet.

"Well, okay. We're done boarding up the downstairs then." Margaret looked vaguely surprised that it was over so quickly.

"Let's go see about the fire," I suggested quietly, taking a more serious tone, and Margaret nodded in agreement, following as I once again led the way outside.

The bodies had been reduced to nothing but ashes, the sizzling bones still smoking. "Let's stomp this out and leave it. Nothing should be attracted to it; if anything, the smoke will repel walkers." I smashed my foot down on it, quickly stomping the bones down into a chalky white powder. The smoke went out with a hiss.

"Back inside," Margaret was turned and headed for the house. Just as she reached the cars, a lumbering shape appeared in front of her.

"MARGARET! WALKER!" I yelled in panic, sprinting forward as it leaned down and grabbed her roughly in it's hands. She wrenched herself free and kicked it in the chest, sending it stumbling backwards. It fell over a rock, and Margaret took the opportunity to grab said rock and throw it with all her strength into the walker's face. The head exploded with a disgusting squelch.

"Couldn't you just have shot it?" Hailey was complaining behind me.

"Oh, never mind it could've killed her. Why don't we complain about _how_ she killed _it_?" Kristen was ready with a smart ass answer.

"Don't you two start." Ethan was rolling his eyes. Thomas just laughed in agreement, shrugging.

I ran forward to Margaret. "Are you okay?" I asked the silly question. I had seen the whole thing. If the walker had bitten her I would've seen it.

She nodded. "I'll be fine. I just need to sleep. It's been a really... hard day." Margaret's eyes were forlorn again.

"Well, we have everything except upstairs barricaded, so let's head inside and get that set up and then talk sleeping arrangements, huh?" I suggested, putting my arm around her shoulder and giving her a squeeze. She merely nodded again and trudged towards the house.

"Do you think she's gonna be okay?" Kristen was watching her cross the brown lawn to the front step.

"I have absolutely no clue," I managed sadly. "I hope so."


	11. Chapter 10 On The Run

**Chapter 10**

On The Run

_Emma_

"Which bedroom do you want?" I looked at Kara. We were upstairs, having barricaded the stairwell, and were choosing rooms. There was only three bedrooms instead of four, and the boys had already agreed to sleep out in the hall on some blankets. We were going to share the old beds that we had found, but we ended up using them as barricades for keeping walkers downstairs, and had stripped them of their sheets and used it as padding on the floor.

Kara looked around. "Umm... Margaret said she wanted this one with Annie..." she pointed to the one nearest the stairs, "so I guess the next one down. We'll be bunking with Sydney." She stepped into the room, looking at the two mattresses and the pile of sheets at the end of the room. She shook her head and mumbled softly, "Damn, Margaret moved those things like they were nothing. Those mattresses weigh like a hundred pounds, right?"

I nodded. "Mm-hmm. She's pretty strong. I'm glad that she's survived through all of this." My mind flashed through all of the times she had thrown herself in danger and almost gotten killed. The most recent one was of her stepping up to the leader of that rogue group, only to get shot in the head and _survive. _I shuddered and then helped Kara move the mattresses out into the floor, looking at each of them in indecisiveness.

"Are we going to share?" Kara was staring at the two different pieces of bedding.

I nodded. "Yeah, we'll awkwardly share a twin-sized mattress. Which one?"

"The one nearest the door in case something gets inside." Kara started layering bedding on top of our temporary sleeping pallet. Ethan came in just then, looking over the sleeping accommodations before his face broke out into a grin.

"Are you two _sleeping together?" _He stressed the two words out, his face twinkling. I shook my head in disgust.

"Ew, what are you, some perverted freak? We're _sharing_ the bed, not _sleeping_ together! We're both straight if you haven't noticed!"

"Really? I don't know... Margaret's more boy than girl," Ethan teased, looking over his shoulder, his eyes flicking behind him quickly. He jumped in surprise; Margaret was standing behind him, looking _very _unimpressed.

"What was that about me?" She growled, shoving Ethan roughly out of the way. "Get out."

Annie followed her closely, giving her a warning glare. I knew exactly what it meant; don't be mean to him. Margaret shot just as nasty a glare back, then shook her head and continued into the room .

"We weren't even talking about Margaret," I shot back at him, and then Kara looked up.

"Ethan, please stop picking fights. It's bothering me." She was pleading him with her bright, shining eyes.

He looked at her for a moment and then sighed, and muttered, "Fine," before shuffling out of the room.

"What the heck was that?" Annie was staring after him.

"I don't know. He came in and asked about sleeping arrangements, and when we told him he started making fun of us. Then he brought up Margaret and rubbed her ego in the ground and she popped up and snarled at him." I attempted to explain to her what had happened.

Annie sighed and looked at Margaret, who was fuming and staring at the ground. "I know what you're thinking. No, we can't leave him for dead." She gently brushed the back of her hand across Margaret's shoulder. Margaret sighed and leaned into her touch, her face seemingly aging in the short time that it took for it to fold into a wary, tired expression.

"We came in to see what was going on, and who was sleeping where," she looked at Kara and I. "If you've got the beds organized, I'll leave you to it."

She turned and left abruptly, Annie glancing at us almost in apology for Margaret's tart responses before following. I looked at Kara, and shook my head. Being the leader of the group was making Margaret age fast. Ever since the boys had joined the group, she had been challenged for the role as leader almost every day, and had to constantly prove that thinking it out was better than fighting blindly, like Ethan always wanted to do.

"It's time for someone else to start leading us," I suggested quietly. "Margaret doesn't look like she can take the constant abuse and teasing."

"I could do it," Kara ventured, tucking the sheets around Sydney's blanket and making it look comfortable. "I've led before when Margaret was unavailable, and I could do it again."

"Maybe it's time you do," I nodded. "I would think that Annie would take over, but she's passive when it comes to that stuff, and Margaret wouldn't want to put her through that... I don't think Margaret wants any of us to be put through that.." I was thinking aloud by now, just throwing my thoughts out for Kara to hear. "I think that's why she's led without complaint.. she's saving us from all of the stress that comes with lives being on your shoulders."

"Maybe it's time for those lives to be eased onto mine." Kara deftly picked up Sydney's mattress with a grunt of effort, and tossed it over to the other side of the room, separating the room into two obvious lines, our meager stuff on one side, Sydney's on the other.

"But... I don't want you to be stressed either..." I was torn. I didn't want my best friend to be torn apart like Margaret, but on the other hand, I felt horrible for Margaret wordlessly just accepting the burden of all of our lives.

"I'll be fine," Kara waved her hand in the air. "I cope differently than Margaret does. She bottles it all in and then lets it out at some point to Annie. I just tell off the person that's upsetting me, and it makes my life so much better."

"You can't tell off a horde of walkers coming at you..." I trailed off uncertainly, flopping down on the mattress. Kara sat beside me, shaking her head.

"I can fight. And besides, just because she's not leading doesn't mean she won't be our best fighter. She still has those wicked machetes that slice anything moving, dead or alive."

I laughed, thinking of the horrible massacres that Margaret and her spinning, slashing machetes had launched on the walking dead. She was amazing at it, her arms and hands slinging them around like nun-chucks, while her face, which was always dripping sweat with slicked-down hair framing it, bent in a snarl of hate and malice, making her terrifying.

"You're right," I clapped Kara on the shoulder. "You can lead, she can fight. That'll work pretty well."

_Annie_

"You sure you don't want the mattresses?" I looked at Margaret, who was settling down on the hard wooden floor. She nodded, laying on the bare floor and pulling a single blanket over herself. We had two mattresses pushed together, making a wide pallet, but instead Margaret had left it to just me and was lying on the barren ground.

"I'll be fine," she muttered, laying her head down on the one dusty pillow she had. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself and sighed, seemingly flattening into the floor. I almost teared up; she looked so sad, so lonely, so.. _broken_. I stood and crossed the nearly black room, bending down and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, Margaret. It's me, Annie. You know, your best friend? I know you better than anyone else in the world. And I know that you want to sleep on those mattresses, but your conscious and generous nature are stopping you. So get your ass over here."

She rolled over and looked up at me with tear-brimmed eyes, and as she stood, I pulled her into a hug. She accepted it, resting wearily against my side while I rubbed her back with one hand and squeezed her with the other. Then I pulled away and grabbed her, throwing her onto the bed teasingly. She yelped in surprise and fell, landing on her back. I laughed and fell down beside her, reaching out and tickling her stomach.

She squeaked and shoved my hand away, explosive laughter raining out from inside her. I giggled as well, getting up and shutting the door to our room and locking it before returning back to the pallet of mattresses. Margaret had settled into the sheets, looking more like the young, innocent twelve year old that I had first befriended, instead of the seasoned killer seventeen year old that she was.

I smiled and laid down beside her, reaching out to squeeze her hand briefly before rolling to face her. "Good night." I yawned and snuggled into the sheets, the cold shrouded out by our body heat.

"G'night," Margaret slurred out, her voice drained, and brushed her hand across my shoulder, before falling into a deep sleep almost instantly, her face relaxing and the knots in her shoulders almost vanishing.

I sighed contentedly. She looked happy when she was sleeping. It was a.. peaceful look. I closed my eyes, happy that we had somewhere semi-safe to sleep, and then let myself drift into an easy, lighter sleep.

_Abbey_

Margaret and Annie had already gone to bed, I discovered, when I tried to go into their room to check on them. They had locked their door, and I could hear soft snoring through the wall, so they had drifted off.

Sydney and I sat in with Kara and Emma, all chatting while the boys fixed the rest of the rooms.

"So where do you wanna go next?" Sydney was asking Kara, who sat with Emma on the bed opposite her.

"Uh, how about heading for the coast? We can reach there by the end of a week if we try," she offered up.

"If we can find shelter," Emma chided, looking over at the window briefly at the disappearing sun, and then standing. "Kara, Syds, it's almost time to go to sleep."

"All right, mother Emma," I snorted good-naturedly, standing to leave the room. "I'll just go and sleep in the other room safely while the walkers eat you first!" I stood and left the room, heading to Sierra and the twins' room, where I would be sleeping. There were three mattresses in this room as well, and the sisters were gonna share, so Sierra and I had our own bed for the night.

I came in and collapsed onto my pallet, ignoring the smart remark out of Sierra. "Good night retards," I moaned, crawling under my sheets and snuggling down.

"Good night? It's not even dark outside!" Hailey was laughing at me.

"It will be in about twenty minutes! Go to sleep," Kristen threw her shoe at Hailey. Hailey caught it, laughing, and tossed it back before joining her sister on the large queen-sized mattress. I felt my mind calm momentarily; this was almost like before the apocalypse, when we all could relax and have fun without being killed and eaten.

Then the moment was over, and Hailey was laying down to sleep, ignoring Sierra as she stepped around her to grab an extra sheet. Then she too returned to her mattress to sleep. I watched through half-closed eyes, exhaustion washing over me from all of the crap from today, and right before I drifted off, I sent a quick prayer to God to accept and protect Meg, and if her spirit could still make it safely to Heaven, guide and show her the way.

_Thomas_

Ethan and I sat in the middle of the hallway, two mattresses set on opposite sides of the hall, just sitting and not talking, staring at the staircase, as the light slowly dwindled.

"Hey dude, could I ask you a question? Like, advice question?" I spoke, looking sideways at the blonde across from me.

"What is it?" Ethan laid down and turned his back to me, pulling the blanket up over himself.

"Well, you know, I was thinking.. Margaret's really funny, and pretty, and smart.."

"No." Ethan didn't even move. "Just, don't."

"But she-"

"That's called suicide Thomas. She'll crush you like a bug." Ethan had a final tone set into his voice.

"Well, what about Kara? She's all that too.." I was exploring all the possibilities.

"She's weird." Ethan sat up and turned to me, a funny look in his eyes. "Don't try her."

"Okay.. whatever. I'll just try Annie. She's almost just like Margaret," I rolled my eyes and laid down.

"Not her either... my suggestion; go for one of the twins or Sierra or something. Margaret will _not_ let you at her. She doesn't like you for the most part, remember? Do you think that she wants someone she doesn't like dating her best friend?" Ethan was laying again.

"So give up. Or snag a girl from another surviving group. But this batch is definitely wack."


	12. Chapter 11 Abundant Death

**Chapter 11**

Abundant Death

**A/N: ...just when you thought, 'Hey, there's no author notes on this story! Yay!' WHA-FUCKIN'-BAM! Here's my first one! Haha you can't get rid of my opinions. Sorry. I also have sorry-ass explanations for some things in this chapter. The eyebrows thing with Emma actually happened. About 7 months ago. It popped into my head and my twisted mind was like, 'Throw it in the story! They won't think you're gay at all!' ... -.- Hahaa so enjoy(:**

**P.S. This story is on the internet. Aaand updates are slow-going because I suck at this thing called school. **

_Annie_

"Hey! Wake up faggot!" Something kicked my side. I moaned and rolled over, looking up to see Margaret's face, lit by moonlight, staring down at me.

I looked out the window. "Why'd you wake me?"

She blushed and looked away. "I couldn't sleep.. so I thought you wouldn't mind sharing the tired feeling with me.."

"The hell, woman? What time is it?" I sat up and shook my head, rubbing my eyes.

"Something like..." she looked at her watch, "two-thirty in the morning."

"You're retarded!" I groaned, flopping back down onto the mattress. "I don't want to be dog tired in the morning!"

"I don't either, but if I am, you're going to suffer with me!" Margaret grinned like a devil and stood, walking to the window. Then she jerked back and crouched, peering over the lip of the window pane and looking down.

"What? What is it?" I rolled onto all fours and scooted slowly across the floor to join her. I looked down, and then shook my head. The yard was full of walkers, staggering around and bumping into each other. A few were gathered around each car, leaning against it and looking through the window or picking at the locked door handles. A few more were looking at the boarded-up windows, trying to figure out if it was worth trying to break in.

"Great.. we're surrounded _again_," Margaret moaned. "I don't know about you, but I don't feel like fighting off walkers first thing in the morning. And I'm definitely not sleeping now!"

"Well, since there's walkers, we need to wake the others and let them be on their guard, and have all of us preferably in one room," I looked at her for confirmation. She nodded and crawled away from the window, then rose to her feet and quietly stepped towards the door, unlocking it and stepping outside into the hallway. I followed closely, and shook Ethan and Thomas awake, letting them stand and get their bearings from being woken up at 2:40 in the morning.

Margaret quietly tapped on Kara and Emma's doors, and a second later a voice replied, "Margaret, is that you?"

"Yea Emma, it's me," Margaret nodded to no one in particular, and watched the door open silently. She explained quietly what was going on to her, and how we were surrounded by walkers. Emma looked horrified, and turned to wake up Kara and Sydney, while I instructed Thomas and Ethan to wake up the others and bring them to Margaret and mine's room.

Once everyone was in our room, Margaret motioned towards the window. "We're trapped in here for the next little while. The walkers are swarming out there."

"It was probably the noise of us arriving," Kara offered, her brown eyes thoughtful. I nodded; Kara was really intelligent. She was second in our class before the apocalypse, and everyone knew how high her IQ was. She was known for being incredibly smart, in addition to twirling and her looks.

"Either way, we're trapped," Abbey groaned, leaning against Sydney's shoulder tiredly. Sydney looked ready to pass out as well, half leaning back against Abbey for support. Sierra sat beside them, her gray eyes narrowed and staring at the ground. I looked around. Everyone was about to pass out from being awakened.

I looked at Margaret. "We should let them sleep," I murmured quietly. "Have them bring their stuff in here and lay down."

Margaret nodded and quickly instructed everyone to quietly carry their mattresses into the room. She went with Emma, Kara, and Sydney to help them gather their stuff and left me temporarily sitting by myself.

I reflected on how we had been kicked out of our own fort not 24 hours ago, and now were stuck in an old house, surrounded by walkers. Meg was dead. Margaret had been shot. It was almost funny how quickly our lives dived deeper into Hell.

Then Margaret came in, holding Sydney's mattress above her head. She set it down in the corner, away from the window, and let Sydney start re-covering it with her blankets and pillow. I watched, idly picking at the edge of my mattress with a fingernail. The moonlight was dancing across the back wall, lighting up the wall with pale, almost blue light, illuminating Sydney's fair skin and making her glow. Margaret's tan skin made her blend into the wall and almost vanish, a fairly good advantage when it comes to hiding from walkers.

Margaret stood and returned to the other room, coming back a few seconds later carrying Emma and Kara's mattress. She set it beside ours, leaving about a foot in between for personal space. The boys entered, carrying the rest of the mattresses between them. They set them down in the middle of the room and then let the others unstack and arrange them. Soon, the room was covered in mattresses and blankets, with the group spread evenly and all resting comfortably.

"Well, I'm turning in." Thomas went to lay down on his mattress, which he had placed almost annoyingly close to my spot on our pallet. He flashed me a smile from under his bangs and then laid down, pulling his blanket up over himself and quickly nodding off.

I looked up and at Margaret, and caught her glaring at him, her eyes narrowed and mouth set in a scowl. I caught her eye, and was about to scold her, but the look vanished almost instantly into the same soft, friendly half smile that she always gave me. She began to cross the room to sit down between me and Emma.

"Don't do that," I whispered in her ear when she sat beside me.

"Do what?" Margaret almost looked confused.

"Blatantly glare at someone from across the room," I muttered back, giving her a light push.

"Well, he's annoying. Not my fault," she hissed back and then turned towards me and leaned back, resting against Emma's side.

"Well hello," Emma looked down at her. "Tired?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Margaret looked up, albeit difficultly, at her face. Emma's brown eyes were soft as she made brief eye contact with Margaret before going back to talking with Kara.

"So, how 'bout actually sleeping?" I asked Margaret, who shrugged in reply.

"You can. Now that I know walkers are out there, I'm not sleeping. You go ahead though, I'll keep watch and wake you first thing if anything happens."

I nodded to her, and started to lay down. Margaret sat up and leaned forward, murmuring, "I'm also watching Ethan and Kara," before patting my shoulder and head-butting me, then sitting back to let me lay down under the blankets.

I sighed, breathing in and then out slowly, and closed my eyes, slowly falling into deep blackness, reassured by Margaret's presence. With her weight on the mattress and her legs draped lazily over mine, I felt safe for the first time today.

_Margaret_

I watched Annie slowly fall asleep, her scowling face easing into a gentle smile, her blue eyes hidden from me, and then turned my gaze on Thomas. He looked so... smug in his sleep. It bothered me. Why do guys always think they're hot stuff? I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts (and waves of annoyed anger) and laid back against Emma again.

She looked down idly at me, and shifted so that my head was resting on her stomach. "Aww, is the little margwet tired?" She cooed mockingly, ruffling my hair.

"Stop it," I growled, grabbing her hand and crushing her fingers together.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Stop it!" Emma yanked her hand back, shaking her fingers and grumbling about my being a jerk.

"Shut up, faggot," I brushed her side with my hand, tickling her.

She swatted my hand away, saying, "Don't do that, it tickles," and tried to hold my hand down to the ground. I over-powered her with some difficulty and sat up, slowly sliding my legs off of Annie's and then turning to face Emma, pulling my legs up to sit on my knees. I attacked her mercilessly, thrumming her sides with my fingers while she squirmed and tried not to laugh, fighting back against my vicious attack.

I giggled quietly, keeping the noise level way down, and kept it up until Kara turned from where she was talking with Ethan and pushed me off of the now panting Emma, muttering humorously, "Stop messing with my bitch," and winking. Emma and I stared at Kara for a second, and then Emma took the chance and grabbed me, throwing me to the ground and starting to attack my sides.

I writhed under her weight, my sides heaving with silent laughter. Emma's brown eyes glowed with triumph as I gave in and went limp, and she sat back, whispering, "Learned your lesson?"

"Yea yea," I smirked at her, then crawled to where I could listen to Kara and Ethan talk and lay with my head in Emma's lap. I rested my cheek against her shin, and looked up at her with one eye, saying quietly, "Wake me when you go to sleep. I'm keeping watch."

Emma nodded and murmured, "Okay, and then turned her head, her hair flowing in the slight draft, and joined Kara and Ethan's conversation. I closed my eyes and listened to my friends' voices drone on, the sound lulling my already tired brain. I curled up in a ball, and then almost jumped when I felt Emma's hands on my forehead. She started smoothing my eyebrows repeatedly, the touch making me even more drowsy, until I finally gave in to the charcoal tide and blacked out.

When I woke up, Emma had shifted to where she was half laying on the ground, my head resting on her stomach. She looked down as I shifted, whispering, "Did you get a good night's sleep?"

"Not really," I grimaced and closed my eyes in a vein attempt to go back to sleep.

"Oh, no you don't. Wake up," Emma laughed quietly, cuffing my exposed ear. I flinched and swatted her hand away, then pulled a blanket over myself and settled back into my little depression in the mattresses.

"What have _they_ been up to?" I rolled over to face Emma and cocked an eyebrow.

She reached down and ruffled my hair, saying, "Oh, stupid stuff, mostly. Ethan keeps asking about her old life. She _only_ talks about middle school twirling."

"I remember that," I grinned. "You were a part of that line at the time, I do believe."

"Don't remind me! The competition twirling was fun. The school functions.. sucked." Emma screwed her face up at the last statement, trying to think of a nice way to tell me about how horrible the football game performances were. I already knew, of course, being in the band and all, but she made a comment about it every time it was brought up.

"I also remember the 'twirler mascot,'" I added on, mentioning how I had run around with the twirlers even though I was a mediocre clarinet player with no twirling experience whatsoever. I had embarrassed myself multiple times, but obviously my thick skull and love for my friends had me running back every football game. I mainly ran and bought them food, and helped them carry stuff, and of course attended every _damn _practice if my parents allowed.

"You were a good little mascot," Emma mused, running her hands absentmindedly through my hair.

"No way? You dated a senior when you were a freshman?!" Ethan was almost talking above a whisper.

"Shh!" Kara was trying to quiet him down. "Yes, I did! His name was.. ahh.. guys, do you remember it?"

Emma nodded. "Nick."

"Ya, that's it. Nick Gilley." Kara looked at Ethan.

"Nice name," he remarked, though he looked down in what I almost could call jealousy.

"Did you see that?" I muttered, barely loud enough for Emma to hear.

She nodded back, bending down and hissing in my ear, "He does that all the time nowadays. I'm getting sick of it." Then she grinned and added, "My Kara."

"Of course! She seems to forget who you are when boys are involved though," I grinned back, teasing her gently. Emma just smacked me.

"She loves me more than you!"

"So?" I sat up. "I have Annie! Isn't that right, you fatty?" I slapped Annie on the shoulder, which made her jump and wake instantly.

"Wha...what?" Annie looked sleepily at me.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep, you twat," I leaned forward and gently pushed her head back down. She muttered something about hating me, and then quickly went back to taking ragged, half snoring breaths, her face pressed into her pillow.

"Shouldn't we move her?" Ethan was listening to the sounds growing louder.

"Nah. She'll roll over eventually," I looked at him in a kind of 'don't touch her' way, and he shrugged, going back to talking with Kara. Emma and I just rolled our eyes at the same time and looked at each other, then giggled softly.

"They are _so_ falling for each other," I muttered to Emma, watching as Kara started laughing quietly, reaching forward and putting her hand on Ethan's knee.

"What time is it?" Emma reached down and grabbed my wrist, contorting it around so that she could read my watch. "Almost six thirty... we'll have to wake the others soon and make a move. Do you have the firecrackers with us?"

"Yea, in my backpack over there." I pointed towards the door. I always carried my backpack everywhere, keeping water, an extra handgun and bullets, firecrackers, knives, matches, ropes, chains, locks with keys, MREs, and matches. It was only about twenty pounds overall, and there was enough food and water to last me a week if I got stranded and managed to find safety.

By now, daylight was starting to appear above the tree line outside the house. I got up, bringing Emma with me, and cautiously approached the window. I looked down and then grinned. The walkers, seeing as they couldn't find anything aside from newly moved cars, had started to wander away, and only a few were still left in the area. I could easily take the ones left out with the machetes or a gun and pillow used as a silencer.

Emma was thinking the same. "If you'll use those swords of yours, I'll take a handgun and pillow and kill with you."

"I don't want you to do that," I frowned, looking at her. "Let the boys get up close to those monsters. The other side of the house might have more walkers over there. We haven't checked yet."

I turned and started waking Sydney, while the others woke the rest of everyone, one at a time. Once the group was awake and armed, I regained my spot at Annie's side and opened the door leading to the hallway, holding my machetes in front of me in case the walkers had managed to get inside. The door swung open. Nothing.

I walked into the hall, followed by the group, and had sets of two people check each room, and then we started towards the stairs. We hit the bottom step just in time to realize that the front door's barricade had been moved, and then Sydney screamed as a walker lurched around the corner and sank it's teeth into the back of her neck. She dropped to the ground, clutching the hole in her skin, as I decapitated the walker with one furious swing.

Sydney was fading fast, writhing on the ground and convulsing in pain. She looked into my eyes for one second, begging at a strained whisper, "Kill me.." and then quickly returning to thrashing, coating herself in her own blood.

Abbey knelt beside her, leaning down and murmuring, "See you on the other side, Syds.." and then putting her gun up to Sydney's head, placing a pillow between the muzzle and Sydney's forehead, and then squeezed the trigger, silently putting down her friend. She started sobbing, dropping her gun and holding her face in her hands.

Ethan and Thomas were taking out walkers as they tried to enter the door, while the group was killing the ones inside. Annie stopped one from biting me, and killed it silently with a pillow. She raised her eyebrows at me, and I realized that I was staring at Abbey and Sydney's body, shocked at what just happened.

I shook my head and lifted Sydney's body, putting it on my shoulder, then turning and helping Abbey to her feet. She nodded quietly, still crying, and moved towards the door, were everyone was waiting. We fought our way out of the house, and against the sudden crowd of walkers, and made a break for the trucks, most of us making it in. I jumped in my car with Annie and started the engine, watching the walkers grab the locked door handles in an attempt to get to us.

Then I gasped as I saw Thomas get snagged by one walker, and then quickly get swarmed. They dragged him out of the car, and in a last ditch resort, he grabbed onto Ethan's wrist and took him with him.

Ethan fought back and then shot Thomas once, and then put the gun to his own head. I heard Kara scream, "Ethan, NOO!"

Then he pulled the trigger.


End file.
